Occasional 
visitant. 
140 PASSERES. LANIUS. SHRIKE. 
determined me to place them in the first division of the Pas- 
seres, correspondent to his order Jnsectivores. Except in 
boldness, and their occasional carnivorous propensity, they 
bear no resemblance to the Rapacious order, and an equally 
well-grounded objection may be urged against their admit- 
tance amongst the Omnivores. Like most of the Passeres, 
their notes are melodious and variable. Their food princi- 
pally consists of insects, sometimes of smaller birds and ani- 
mals, which they tear in pieces with their bill, having first 
transfixed the object upon a thorn. Their mode of flight 
is, irregular, and the tail is kept in constant agitation, as is 
the case with many birds belonging to this order. Some of 
the species are subject to a double moult, or rather to a 
change of colour, in certain parts of the plumage twice in the 
year ; in the rest it is ordinary and single. 
Great Cinereous Shrike.—Lanius excubitor, Linn. 
+ PLATE 48. Fig. 1. 
Lanius excubitor, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 135. 11.—Fau. Suec. No. 80.—Gmel. 
Syst. 1. p. 300. 11.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. v. 1. p. 67. sp. 6. 
Lanius, seu Collurio cinereus major, Raii, Syn. p. 18. A. 3.—Will. p. 53. 
t. 10.—Briss. 2. p. 141. 1. 
Pie Grieche, Buff: Ois. v. 1. p. 296. t. 20.—IJd. Pl. Enl. 445.—Temm. Man. 
d@’Ornith. vy. 1. p. 142. 
Grauer Wurger, Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. v. 1. p. 87.—Frisch, t. 59. 
Blaauwe Klauwier, Sepp. Nederl. Vég. 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. Dict. 
—Pult. Cat. Dorset. p. 4.—Bewick’s Br. Birds, 1. p. 58.—Don, Br. Birds, 
AE AB TE 
Provincial, Mountain Magpie, Mattiges, Wireangle, Mur- 
dering Pie. 
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 
+ The Plate that should have been numbered thus, has been by mis- 
take numbered 27. 
