i68 S H R I K E. 



of other birds in the neft, taking hold of them by the neck, and 

 ftrangling them, beginning to eat them firft at the brain and 

 eyes*, it is more fond of graishoppers and beetles than of other 

 infects, which it eats by morfels, and, when fatisfied, flicks the 

 remainder on a thorn ; when kept in a cage, does the fame againfr. 

 the wires of it. It is called in the German language by a name^ 

 fignifying great head, or bull head, from the fLe of that part. It 

 will alfo feed on fheep's kidney, if in a cage, eating a whole one 

 everyday. Like the cinereous Shrike, it only mocks the notes 

 of other birds, having none of its own ; and this merely, like that, 

 to decoy. It is faid to be, in this imitative art, an adept; if 

 money is counted over at midnight, in the place where one of 

 thefe is kept, fo as to make a jingling noife, it begins to imitate 

 the fame found. When fitting on the neft, the female is foon 

 difcovered, for on the approach of any one fhe fets up an horrible 

 outcry. 



16. 



VARIEGATED L'Ecorcheur varie, Sri/, orn. ii. p. 155. N° 5. 



S. Leffer variegated Butcher-bird, Rail Syn. p. 19. A. 5. — Will. orn. p. 189. 



Description. 



'"J" HIS is grey on the upper part of the body, and rufous white 



beneath, ftriated both above and below tranfverfely with 



brown : the fcapulars are rufous white, bounded by a parallel 



black ftripe : tail black ; the three outer feathers rufous white at 



the bafe and tips ; the outer one wholly rufous white on the outer 



edge. 



This fhould feem to be the female of the former, did not the 



markings of the tail forbid the fuggeftion. 



L* 



