LANIUS.] AVES INSESSORES. 95 



bordered externally with dark brown and small white spots intermixed: 

 upper parts nearly similar ; liver-brown, spotted with white, but the spots 

 on the head and nape not so numerous : the white spots on the scapulars 

 and wing-coverts disposed more in lines : wings and tail relatively longer; 

 the latter with interrupted white bars : under parts white ; the dark spots 

 much as in N. passerina, but having a tendency to unite to form trans- 

 verse bars : bill yellowish white : legs and toes thickly clothed with soft 

 downy feathers. (Egg.) Elongated; pointed: white: long. diam. one 

 inch four lines; trans, diam. eleven lines. 



Of equal rarity with the last in this country. Has been killed near 

 Morpeth in Northumberland, and probably in other instances. Said to 

 feed on mice and insects, and to breed in the hollows of firs. 



ORDER II. INSESSORES. 



GEN. 12. LANIUS, Linn. 

 * Tail long; graduated. 



29. L. Excubitor, Linn. (Cinereous Shrike.) Head, 

 neck, and back, cinereous ; a black band beneath the eyes : 

 under parts white. 



L. Excubitor, Temm. Man. dOrn. torn. i. p. 142. Cinereous Shrike, 

 Mont. Orn. Diet, and Supp. Selb. Illust. vol. i. p. 148. pi. 43. 

 f. 1. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 71. 



DIMENS. Entire length ten inches: length of the bill (from the fore- 

 head) eight lines, (from the gape) one inch ; of the tarsus one inch ; of 

 the tail four inches three lines ; from the carpus to the end of the wing 

 four inches six lines : breadth, wings extended, fourteen inches. 



DESCRIPT. (Male.) Upper plumage, including the head neck and 

 back, ash gray ; scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts, somewhat paler : 

 a black band beneath the eye, commencing at the base of the upper 

 mandible, and extending beyond the orifice of the ear : under parts pure 

 white : wings black ; primaries white at the base ; secondaries tipped 

 with white : tail cuneiform, of twelve feathers ; the two middle ones 

 black ; the two next tipped with white ; the others with the white por- 

 tion gradually increasing to the outermost feather, which is almost wholly 

 white: bill and feet black: irides blackish brown. (Female.) Upper 

 plumage resembling that of the male, but the colours more obscure: 

 under parts dirty white, with numerous crescent-shaped dusky lines. 

 (Egg.) Light bluish white ; the larger end nearly covered with spots of 

 two shades of li^ht brown and ash : long. diam. one inch one line ; trans, 

 diam. nine lines and a half. 



A migratory, and not abundant species : visits this country sparingly 

 towards the end of Autumn, departing in the Spring. Feeds on small 

 birds, mice, insects, &c. Transfixes its prey when killed upon a thorn 

 before devouring it. Builds in trees, and lays from five to seven eggs. 



