238 THE GREY SHRIKE. 



Great Cinereous, or Grey Shrike. 



(Lanius Excubitor.) Linn. 



As none of the butcher birds are found near St Andrews, to 

 my knowledge, I shall briefly describe them. This is the 

 largest of the three species that visit Britain. It is about the 

 size of a mavis, but has a larger head and stronger bill. The 

 general colour is ash-grey on the upper parts ; the lower, white, 

 with a broad black band on the side of the head. Wing 

 coverts also black ; irides, blackish-brown ; the tail long and 

 black. The female similar, but the head and neck darker, 

 tinged with brown, the band on the head blackish-brown, and 

 the breast marked with grey lines. The length of the male to 

 end of tail is 10 \ inches, and 14 J inches in extent of wings ; 

 tail, 5£ inches long. Although not gaudily coloured, it is one of 

 the most beautiful of the genus. Woods with hedges are its 

 favourite haunts. It builds its pretty large nest (like a missel 

 thrush's) in high hedges, thick bushes, and trees. It is 

 composed of roots, grasses, moss, and wool, lined with finer 

 roots and dry grass. The eggs are like the missel thrush's ; 

 usually five, sometimes six or seven. They are pinkish-white, 

 with reddish-brown and greyish-purple spots at the larger end. 

 It feeds on insects, such as beetles, cockchafers, &c, small 

 birds and small quadrupeds, which it kills by blows on the 

 head with its strong bill ; it then transfixes upon a thorn or 

 jams in the fork of a branch, roughly plucks, tears to pieces, 

 and swallows. Sometimes it stands on it like a hawk and tears 

 it up, ejecting afterwards in pellets the undigested parts. 

 After killing a bird, mouse, or frog it hovers above a hedge 

 with it in its bill, selecting a thorn to fix it upon. Even when 

 confined in a cage it evinces the same propensity for fixing its 

 prey ; hence very aptly named the " butcher bird" and 

 Tennyson most aptly says — 



" The May fly is torn by the swallow, the sparrow is speared by the shrike, 

 And the whole little wood where I sit is a world of plunder and prey." 



If there is no thorn or sharp-pointed stick in the cage it fastens 

 it in the wires before eating. As many as the remains of three 

 mice and three frogs have been found transfixed on one large 

 thorn bush. 



