55 



GREY SHRIKE. 



GREAT GREY SHRIKE. GREAT SHRIKE. ASH-COLOURED SHRIKE. 



GREATER BUTCHER BIRD. MURDERING PIE. SHRIKE. 

 SHREEK. CINEREOUS SHRIKE. MATTAGESS. MOUNTAIN PIE. HORSEMATCH. 



PLATE XXVII. 



Lanius excubitor, LINNAEUS. PENNANT. 



" " MONTAGU. BEWICK. 



THE nest of the Grey Shrike is built in trees, hedges, or bushes, 

 some height above the ground. It is large and 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 

 callow brood to the callous bird-nester. The young, indeed, themselves 

 join in the untoward imprudence. 



The eggs are four or five, and sometimes it is said, as many as 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, forming an irregular band the character of those of all 

 the Shrikes. 



One variety is of a dull yellowish green all over, slightly marked 

 with specks and a few blots of a darker shade of the same. 



A second is of a pale yellowish white ground-colour, spotted all over 

 with spots, dots, and oblong marks of a yellowish green colour, and 

 the base a good deal marked with the same. 



