THE GREAT, OR ASH-COLOURED SHRIKE. 55 



contest. The colours of the plumage are pleasing 

 shades of grey, rufous, or white, interrupted by 

 decided black markings on the head, wings, and 

 tail. Our native birds are migratory, being either 

 summer or winter visitants, and indeed the great 

 proportion of species in other countries, also par- 

 tially travel at the breeding time, pass at the 

 change of seasons from one distant part of a 

 continent to another, or seek altogether a more 

 genial or otherwise suitable climate, wherein to 

 spend the winter, or the season of incubation. 

 In disposition they are solitary, seldom appearing 

 in greater numbers than the amount of the last 

 brood, and most frequently in pairs, or single. 

 They appear to delight more in woodland 

 districts than in wild or extensive forests ; and 

 in Britain are commonly found about the well- 

 wooded hedgerows or parks of the south. Their 

 food consists of small birds, together with their 

 young, small mammalia, reptiles, and the larger 

 insects. We are not sure that the manner in 

 which the prey is captured has yet been noticed.* 



* The indefatigable Wilson says, speaking of the great 

 American Shrike, that he resorts to stratagem, but at the 

 same time, that he can " at any time seize upon small 

 birds by mere force of flight. I have seen him in an open 

 field dart after one of our small sparrows with the rapidity 

 of an arrow, and kill it almost instantly." And again of 

 the Loggerhead, (L. Ludovicianus,) that " it sits, for hours 

 together, on the fence, beside the stacks of rice, watching 

 like a cat, and as soon as it perceives a mouse, darts on it 

 like a hawk." N. Amer. Ornith. Edit. Sir W. J. i. 

 pp. 77 and 344. 



