496 LANIUS EXCUBITOR. 



bill may be nearly all black, and the feet more or less tinged 

 with brown. Aldrovandus, Jonstone, and Brisson, mention a 

 variety or individual all white, excepting the bill and claws 

 which were black, and the feet which were yellowish. 



Habits. — The Cinereous Shrike or Butcher Bird, although 

 only an occasional or accidental visitant, and that chiefly in 

 autumn and winter, has been met with in so many districts 

 in England, that it is unnecessary to .specify localities. In the 

 south of Scotland also it has to my knowledge been shot in the 

 counties of Peebles, Lanark, Mid-Lothian, and East-Lothian. 

 Li Edinburgh there are at present four Scottish specimens, 

 one in the Museum of the University, another in Mr Steven- 

 son's collection, a third in that of Mr Thomas Henderson, and 

 a fourth in my own. In a list of the birds of Morayshire sent 

 to me by Mr Barclay and the Rev. Mr Gordon, it is stated that 

 " a specimen of Lanius Excubitor was killed by Mr Chas. 

 W. Barclay at Calcots, near Elgin, in December 1836, and 

 is now in the Elgin Museum. It is the only one known to 

 have been killed in the district." In the Statistical Reports 

 it is also repeatedly noticed. Thus, it is said to have occurred 

 at Mountboy Wood, in the parish of Craig in Forfarshire ; in 

 Kirriemuir in the same county ; in Galashiels, in Selkirkshire, 

 &c. ; but these reports are not always worthy of credit, as will 

 appear to any ornithologist who examines them, from the cu- 

 rious mistakes often made by their authors. On the whole, 

 however, it may be said that this bird, although rarely met 

 with in Scotland, is not so extremely uncommon as to render 

 an extended search for it in books at all commendable. I have 

 not however met with it alive, and therefore must present a 

 second-hand account of its habits. 



This species preys upon insects of various kinds, frogs, liz- 

 ards, small birds and quadrupeds, which, after killing them 

 by repeated blows of its bill, generally inflicted upon the head, 

 it affixes to a thorn, or jams into the fork of a branch, that it 

 may be enabled to tear them up into small morsels. Some- 

 times however it stands upon its prey, like a hawk, keeping 

 it down with its feet while it breaks it up, and not bestowing 



