Pcrcliiu!^ Birds. 



49 



I — The Great Grey Shrike. 



-The Red-backed Shrike. 3 — The Woodchat Shrike. 



are black, with white ends to most of the feathers, the outer tail-feathers being- 

 broadly tipped with white. On the wing are two conspicuous patches of white, the 

 first formed by the white base of the primaries, and the other by the white base to 

 the outer secondaries. Young birds are shaded with brown, both above and on the 

 breast, the under surface of the bodv being barred with brown margins to the feathers. 



The two species of Great Grey Shrike are very conspicuous birds wherever they 

 occur, from their habit of selecting the top of a bush or small tree from which to take 

 a good snrve\' of the surrounding ground. They de\'our all kinds of food, insects, 

 frogs, lizards, and mice being eaten in summer, but in winter mice and small 

 birds form their prey. The Shrikes have a very strongly hooked bill like that of a 

 Hawk, and they are called ' Butcher-birds,' from their habit of impaling their 

 prey on thorns, and here, in the Shrike's ' larder,' as it is called, ma\' often be found 

 hanging the remains of the bodies of his victims. 



The nest is a somewhat rough structure of twigs, grass and moss, and the eggs, 

 tiom five to seven in number, are greenish-white or brownish-white, with spots of 

 olive or greenish-brown. 



P.^LL.vs's Great Grey Shkiki-; 

 [Laniui sihiriciis). This is another 

 winter visitor, coming from Siberia 

 and Northern Russia, where it breeds. 

 In habits and form it exactly resembles 

 the foregoing species, from which it 

 differs in onlj' having one white wing- 

 patch instead of two, the inner 

 secondaries being entirelv back. Pallas's Great Grey Shrike. 



