THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE 75 



During 1907-1 908 the economic role played by the Rook has been 

 thoroughly investigated by ornithologists and farmers all over 

 Hungary, with the results that this bird stands as a friend rather 

 than a foe to agriculture. 



FAMILY LANIID^ 

 THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE 



LANIUS EXCUBITOR 



Head, nape, and back, bright ash grey ; a broad black band beneath the eyes ; 

 under plumage pure white ; wings short, black ; base of the primaries and 

 tips of the secondaries white ; tail with the two middle feathers black, 

 and the outer on each side white with a black spot at the base, the rest 

 black and white ; bill and feet black. Female of a more dingy hue 

 above ; below dull white, the proportion of black in the feathers increas- 

 ing as they approach the middle ; each feather of the breast terminating 

 in a crescent-shaped ash grey spot. Length ten inches ; breadth fourteen 

 inches. Eggs bluish white, spotted at the larger end with two shades of 

 brown. Sylvan. Young barred below. 



The family of Shrikes, or Butcher-birds, would seem to occupy 

 an intermediate station between birds of prey and insectivorous 

 birds. The subject of the present chapter especially, though 

 little resembling a Hawk in appearance, has, on account of its habits, 

 some pretension to be ranked among birds of prey ; from which, 

 however, it differs in the essential particular that, as well as the 

 rest of the family, it seizes and carries off its prey with its beak 

 and not with its claws. Although a fairly common visitor from 

 autumn to spring this Shrike does not breed with us, and is rarer 

 in Ireland. It derives its name excubitnr (sentinel) from its favourite 

 habit of posting itself on the topmost twig of a poplar or other lofty, 

 tree, whence it keeps up a watchful look-out, not only for its prey, 

 but for any bird of the Hawk tribe, against which it wages incessant 

 and deadly hostility. When it descries one of these birds, which 

 it does at a great distance, it utters a shriek, as if for the purpose 

 of giving an alarm, a cry which is instantly repeated by all birds 

 of the same species which happen to be within hearing. This 

 antipathy against birds of prey is taken advantage of by fowlers 

 in France, who, when setting their nets for hawks, take with them 

 a ' sentinel ' Shrike and station it near the living bird, which they 

 employ as a lure. So rapid is the swoop of the Falcon that but for 

 the warning cry of the Shrike it would descend and carry off its 

 victim before the fowler had time to close his nets ; but the keen 

 eye of the sentinel detects, and his shrill cry announces, the 

 approach of his enemy, and the fowler has time to prepare. The 

 principal food of this bird appears to be mice, frogs, lizards nnd 



