THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE. 125 



Christmas 1870, when snow was lying on the ground. 

 His attention was attracted to the Shrike by seeing it flying 

 with a bird in its claws, which proved to be a lark. 



The Great Grey Shrike is used by Dutch falconers at 

 Falcons waerd, to assist in catching wild Peregrine Falcons. 

 It is tethered near the clap-net used by them for taking the 

 Hawks, and it gives notice of the approach of a Hawk by 

 its cries ; when the falconer, being thus warned, displays 

 a live pigeon, which has been kept concealed under sods of 

 turf, and the moment the Hawk seizes the Pigeon, the net is 

 drawn over them both.^ 



The size is about that of a Blackbird. The upper plumage 

 is of a pearl-grey colour, wing coverts black, quill feathers 

 of the wing black, with a white bar at the base, forming, 

 when the wing is closed, two white spots. I may here 

 draw attention to the fact that Mr. Seebohm mentions 

 the occurrence of Pallas's Grey Shrike (Lanius major) in 

 Forfarshire, in the winter of 1869, and adds that it appears 

 to be a comparatively frequent visitor to our islands, 

 though it has hitherto been overlooked, probably in con- 

 sequence of its similarity to the subject of our article. He 

 says : — " In the Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excuhitor) the 

 outer webs of the primaries are white at the base, and thus, 

 when the wing is closed, a white bar is formed across the 

 part formed by the primaries. In Pallas's Grey Shrike 

 {Lanius major) exactly the same occurs, so that, so far as the 

 primaries are concerned, there is no difference in the two 

 species. When we come to look at the secondaries, we shall, 

 however, find that in Lanius exculitor the bars of their out- 

 side webs are also white, so that two white patches or bars 

 are formed on the wings, whilst in L. major, there is no 

 white at the base of the outside webs of the secondaries, 



1 A most interesting account of this method of taking wild Falcons is given 

 in The Field newspaper of 16th Feb. and 16th March 1878, 



