534 PASSERIFORMES CHAP. 



smacking sound, others again have a sweet song. The nest of 

 Pacliycepliala is a neat, though sometimes frail, cup of twigs, roots, 

 and grasses, often placed on horizontal boughs, and containing 

 three or four creamy or brownish eggs, with scattered or zonal 

 umber markings and a few lilac spots ; Falcunculus usually selects 

 a gum-tree, and uses bark, grass, and cobwebs, laying two or 

 three elongated whitish eggs, with olive, black, and greyish dots 

 or lines ; those of Oreoeca are bluer. 



Sub-fam. 4. Laniinae. The Shrikes proper extend over the 



FIG. 119. Great Grey Shrike. Lanius excubitor. x T \. 



Palaearctic, Indian, and Ethiopian Eegions, and alone of the 

 Family occur in the New World, Lanius borealis and L. ludo- 

 mcianus inhabiting North America. The lax plumage is either 

 black, grey, and white, or is varied with rich red-brown. Urolestes 

 has the feathers of the crown and neck lanceolate, and those of 

 the sides long and fluffy ; Laniellus is exceptional in being spotted. 

 The young are browner, and are often transversely barred below, a 

 fact also true of the Gymnorhininae. In the large genus Lanius 

 are included all the British Butcher-Birds, L. excubitor, L. minor, 

 L. pomeranus, L. collurio, the Great Grey, Lesser Grey, Woodchat 



