GREY SHRIKE 



GREAT GREY SHRIKE GREAT SHRIKE ASH - COLOURED 

 SHRIKE GREATER BUTCHER BIRD SHRIKE SHREEK 

 CINEREOS SHRIKE MATTAGESS. 



PLATE XXVII. 

 Lanius excubitor, . . . LINNAEUS. PENNANT. 



THE Great Grey Shrike is an autumnal visitant, which 

 has never been known to breed in the British Isles, 

 though it frequently does so in the adjacent countries of 

 Belgium, Holland, and France. 



The nest is a bulky structure built in trees, some height 

 above the ground. It is ill concealed, but well put together, 

 and is composed of grass, hay, ling, small roots, stalks, and 

 moss, and lined with wool or down, or the finer parts of the 

 outside materials. 



When the hen is sitting, the male is very vociferous if 

 any one approaches the nest, and when the young are hatched 

 both exhibit a clamorous anxiety which often defeats their 

 object and betrays their brood to the bird-nester. 



The eggs are five to six or seven in number. They are 

 of a greyish, bluish, or yellowish white ground, spotted at 

 the thicker end with different shades of grey and light brown. 



Professor Newton describes them as "white tinged with 

 VOL. i. 57 H 



