THE SHRIKES 1633 



is to mark down their nests and kill the young birds and one or both parents, before 

 the former can fly. The great gray shrike builds in a variety of situations; Mr. 

 Seebohm found a nest of this species in the top of a Scotch fir, and Mr. Collett ob- 

 served another in Finmark, containing six young ones, in a birch tree on a sterile 

 terrace. The nest was easily seen, and constructed of dry twigs together with 

 straw, thickly lined with white feathers of the willow grouse, and a little wool. In 

 Central Europe large forest oaks are most frequently chosen by this species to con- 

 tain its nest, the tree selected being always on the edge of a belt of timber, never in 

 the centre of a big w^ood; such nests being generally placed at the apex of a forked 

 bough a long way out from the main trunk, built on a knot in the fork, at an eleva- 

 tion of some thirty-five or forty feet. The nest itself is a bulky structure composed 

 of fine twigs interlaced with a few stout straws, bents, and fibres. Within, it is 

 quilted with a profusion of soft substances, feathers of the pheasant and buzzard, a 

 little of the white fur from the belly of a hare, and some of the shed coat of the roe 

 deer, sheep's wool, or any convenient substitute. The eggs of this shrike are 

 greenish white in ground color, blotched with olive green, wood brown, and dull 

 lilac. The great gray shrike is most assiduous in the care which it bestows upon 

 its young, and it is touching to see the distress and consternation which it exhibits 

 if it imagine that the safety of its charge is endangered. 



To a large extent migratory in its habits, this bird does not breed in the British 

 Isles, although a considerable number visit England and Scotland in the fall of the 

 year. They have occurred on Heligoland as early as the middle of August; and 

 while a few individuals yearly pass along favorite "fly-lines" in certain years their 

 numbers have increased tenfold. Those which winter in England for the most part 

 lead lives of solitude, frequenting a particular beat of country for a week or two at 

 a time, during which the familiar outline of the butcher bird may at any moment be 

 detected perching upon the top of some leafless tree, watching incessantly for field 

 voles, shrews, and small hedgerow birds. The flight of the shrike is sometimes high 

 and sometimes low, but constantly undulating. With the arrival of spring the great 

 gray shrike in England moves eastward to the coast, from which it takes its depar- 

 ture in March and April, though an occasional straggler is sometimes reported as 

 having been seen during the summer. In common with other butcher birds, the 

 great gray shrike is in the habit of impaling the carcass of its prey upon some con- 

 venient thorn, in order both to facilitate the flaying of the bird or small mammal, and 

 also to provide a larder. The great gray shrike has the upper parts nearly uniform 

 slaty gray; the lores, cheeks, and ear coverts are black; the wings are black with 

 white bases to the quills; the graduated tail is black and white; and the under parts 

 are pure white, often finely barred with crescentic gray markings. 



The lesser gray shrike (L. minor] is a migratory species, wintering 



eS *Sh 'k E * n Africa, an d passing the summer months in Central and Southern 



Europe, Asia Minor, and Persia. Mr. Seebohm says that in Eastern 



Europe this shrike frequents the outskirts of cultivation, where trees and bushes of 



various kinds struggle for existence among the broken rocks. This species breeds 



early in June, and the nests found in Slavonia are built in acacia trees; in size they 



are as large as those of the blackbird, and chiefly composed of chickweed, freshly- 



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