ASH-COLOURED SHRIKE. 215 



They build their nests in woods and thickets ; their flight 

 is irregular, and their tails incessantly in motion. 



The plumage of the adult male differs from that of the 

 female, and the moult in most of the species takes place 

 but once in the year. Like the thrush, which resorts con- 

 tinually to the same sacrificial stone on which to immolate 

 the devoted snail, the Shrike is said to return again and 

 again to the same thorny bush for the purpose of trans- 

 fixing his selected prey. 



In the genus Lanius the bill is strong, straight at the 

 base, compressed at the sides, the point strongly hooked 

 and toothed ; base of the bill beset with strong hairs, di- 

 rected forwards, partly covering the nostrils, which are basal, 

 lateral, oval, and partly closed. The third and fourth fea- 

 thers are the longest in the wins - . 



The Ash-coloured Shrike is the largest of its class that 

 visits our country ; it measures full ten inches in length from 

 the tip of the beak to the extremity of the tail, and fifteen 

 inches in expanse ; its wings are very short in proportion 

 to its tail, and, when closed, cover only one third of it. The 

 beak measures in the arc three-fourths of an inch, and is black 

 in colour ; the iris is dusky ; the tarsus measures one inch 

 and a quarter, and the middle toe one inch, including the 

 claw, the hinder three-fourths of an inch ; the soles of the 

 feet are greyish, and the base of the upper and under man- 

 dibles bluish in the summer. 



The throat, neck, breast, belly, and vent, are white. From 

 the beak, through the eyes, runs a black band towards the 

 ears, over which is one of pure white, from the forehead 

 backwards, which becomes lost in the ash-colour of the head 

 and nape. The forehead is dirty-white ; the crown of the 

 head, neck, back, and rump, are ash-coloured, the tail-coverts 

 a little paler ; this is also the case with the shoulder-feathers. 

 The lesser and primary wing-coverts are black, the latter 



VOL. I. Q 



