51 
GREAT SHRIKE. 
GREAT GREY SHRIKE. GREY SHRIKE. 
ASH-COLOURED SHRIKE. GREATER BUTCHER BIRD. 
MURDERING PIE. SHRIKE. 
SHREEK. CINEREOUS SHRIKE. MATTAGESS. 
MOUNTAIN PIE. HORSEMATCH. 
PLATE XXVII. 
Lanius excubitor, : : ; Linnzus. PENNANT. 
36 a6 a 5 i . Montagu. Berwick. 
THE nest of the Grey Shrike is built im trees, 
hedges, or bushes, some height above the ground. It 
is large and ill concealed, but well put together, and 
is composed of grass, hay, ling, small roots, stalks, and 
moss, and lined with wool or down, or the finer parts 
of the outside materials. 
When the hen is sitting, the male is very vociferous 
if any one approaches the nest, and when the young 
are hatched, both exhibit a clamorous anxiety which 
often defeats their object, and betrays their callow 
brood to the callous bird-nester. The young indeed, 
themselves join in the untoward imprudence. 
The eggs are four or five, and sometimes it is said, 
as many as six or seven in number. They are of a 
greyish, bluish, or yellowish white ground, spotted at 
the thicker end with different shades of grey and light 
brown, forming an irregular band—the character of those 
of all the Shrikes. 
