68 THE WOODCHAT SHRIKE. 



6. THE WOODCHAT SHRIKE. 



Lanius Erythrocephalm, Collurio rtifus, et Pommeranus, LIN. Pie griesche. 

 rousse, BUF. Der Rothkopfige Wurger, BECH. 



Description. This bird is seven inches long, somewhat 

 smaller, or at least more delicate than the last mentioned. The 

 tail measures three inches and a half, a third of which is covered 

 by the wings. The beak is eight lines long, has a distinct in- 

 dentation, and is blueish black ; the iris is yellowish blue ; the feet 

 one inch high, and as well as the toes blueish black. The fore- 

 head is black, and with it is connected a band of the same 

 colour, running between the eyes, and behind the ears. The 

 back of the head and the neck, are a beautiful reddish brown ; 

 the upper part of the back, brownish black ; the middle, reddish 

 ashen grey. The upper tail coverts are yellow and white. Some 

 large white feathers on the shoulder, form, as in the Magpie, a 

 great white spot on each side of the back. Above the nostrils 

 the yellowish white, which is the prevailing colour of the under- 

 part of the body, appears in two points. The sides are some- 

 what redder, and indistinctly mottled with grey ; the smaller 

 feathers of the wing coverts are blueish black, edged with yel- 

 lowish white ; the larger ones, and the quill feathers, black 

 shot with brown. The quill feathers in front have white bases, 

 which, when the wings are closed, form a white spot. The tail 

 is black, passing over into brown ; the outermost feathers white 

 with a black spot in the middle, the rest white at the point, 

 and the two in the centre, with the exception of the white bases, 

 quite black. The female is exactly like the male, except that 

 the colours, especially the reddish brown, are somewhat paler. 



Habitat. When wild it is a bird of passage, making its 

 appearance at the end of April, and departing in the middle 

 of September. It frequents mountains, woods, and plains full 

 of bushes and trees, and especially congregates where horses 

 are kept day and night on restricted pastures. In confinement 

 it is kept in a wire cage. 



Food. In a wild state it feeds chiefly upon horse and dung- 

 beetles, as well as on grasshoppers, breeze-flies, and other in- 

 sects. In case of necessity it will attack young birds and lizards. 

 When confined it must be treated as the preceding, but as it 

 is even more delicate, it is better to rear it from the nest, than 

 to tame it when old. It is fed from the first on raw meat. 



