40 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



and predaceous habits have given some countenance to the 

 arrangement. They are said to possess the faculty of imi- 

 tating the notes of other birds, in order to entice them within 

 their power; and from their inability to hold their prey 

 with their feet while tearing it to pieces, they transfix it upon 

 a thorn, and. then devour it. Mr. Selby, an eminent natu- 

 ralist, says, (C 1 had the gratification of witnessing this ope- 

 ration of the Shrike upon a Hedge-chanter which it had 

 just killed, and the skin of which, still attached to the 

 thorn, is now in my possession. In this instance, after 

 killing the bird, it hovered with it in its bill for a short 

 time over the hedge, apparently occupied in selecting a 

 thorn for its purpose. Upon disturbing it, and advancing 

 to the spot, I found the Chanter firmly fixed by the tendons 

 of the wing at the selected twig." 



THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE. Lanius excubitor. This 

 bird, which is nearly the size of a Thrush, is the largest of 

 the three species which we have to notice in the present 

 family. It is distributed over a great portion of the Euro- 

 pean continent, and is tolerably abundant in France and in 

 the middle and southern districts of Europe, where its prin- 

 cipal haunts are the well-wooded but enclosed countries, 

 the parks, and enclosed forests. Whether it is only a win- 



