148 INSESSORES. LANIUS. Shrike. 



GREAT CINEREOUS SHRIKE. 



Lanius excubitor, Linn- 



t PLATE XLIII. Fig. 1. 



Lanius excubitor, Linn. Sjst. 1. p. 135. 11 — Fauna Suec. No. 80 Gmef. 



Syst. 1. p. 300. 11 — Lath. Ind. Ornith. v. 1. p. 67. sp. 6. 

 Lanius, seu Collurio cinereus major, Rail 8yn. p. 18. A. 3.— Will. p. 53. 



t. 10 Briss. 2. p. 141. 1. 



Pie Grieche, Buff. Ois. v. 1. p. 296. t. 20.— Id. PI. Enl. AAb.— Temm. Man. 



d'Ornith. v. 1. p. 142. 



Grauer Wurger, Meyer., Tasschenb. Deut. v. 1 . p. 87- Frisch. t. 59. 



Blaauwe Klauwier, Sepp. Nederl. Vdg. t. p. 121. 



-Great Cinereous Shrike, Br. Zool. No. 71. t. 33 Arct. Zool. 2. No. 127. 



— Lewin-s Br. Birds, 1. t. 30 — Lath. Syn. 1. p. 160. 4 Mont. Ornith. 



Diet — Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 4 Bewick's Br. Birds, 1. p. 58.— Z)o?t. Br. 



Birds, 4. t. 87- 



Provincial, — Mountain Magpie, Mattiges, Wireangel, Murdering 

 Pie. 



Occasional This species can only be considered as an occasional visi- 

 tant in England, where a few are usually observed in the 

 course of their autumnal migration towards the equator, and 

 are probably driven upon our eastern shore by adverse 

 winds. 



By most of the British ornithologists, it has been men- 

 tioned as arriving in spring and departing in autumn, which 

 would imply that it breeds in this country, and is a regular 

 periodical visitant. From this view of its habits I must be 

 permitted to dissent, all the specimens that have come under 

 my observation having been killed in the months of Novem- 

 ber, December, and January ; nor have I ever seen or heard 

 of an individual during the summer months. It is a solitary 

 bird, being most frequently found single; though I have 

 more than once met with a male and female together. 



Food. It feeds upon insects, as well as small birds, and the small- 



est class of animals, which it destroys by strangulation. Af- 



-j- The Plate that should have been numbered thus, has been by mis- 

 take numbered 2?. 



