SHRIKE. 15 



quills black, near the bottom of each a white spot; the- two middle 

 tail feathers black, the others the same, but the outer margins and 

 tips whitish ; legs black. 



The female is reddish above, beneath dirty white, every where 

 transversely striped with brown ; tail reddish brown, marked near 

 the end with dusky ; and tipped with red. 



This species inhabits Europe ; but in England, as in France, far 

 from common ; in the former, perhaps, not more than three or four 

 specimens have been met with ; supposed to migrate only acci- 

 dentally. Buftbn seems to know its manners, when he says, they 

 are the same with those of the Red-backed, except that the latter 

 remains in France throughout the year, whereas the Woodchat comes 

 in spring, and departs in autumn, along with the young brood. The 

 nest, like that of the Red-backed, made of moss and wool, so 

 interlaced with fine roots, and pliant twigs, that it appears like any 

 thing woven by art ; the female lays five or six whitish eggs, 

 sprinkled with brown, or fulvous spots. We cannot say where it is 

 found in the greatest plenty, but Mr. White observed multitudes of 

 them migrating annually from Barbary to Gibraltar, in April and 

 May ; and after resting, proceeded northward to breed ; the parents 

 returning with their young brood to Gibraltar, in autumn, on their 

 way back. The young at this time are dusky brown, beautifully 

 speckled with white, of which colour the female is at all seasons. 

 M. Levaillant met with it at Senegal, and found it to be not un- 

 common at the Cape of Good Hope, especially the interior parts, 

 not essentially differing from the European one ; that in the Carl- 

 sonian Museum seems to vary, by having the black band of the 

 forehead continued on each side of the neck to the shoulder, and the 

 colour of it darker. In the one figured in the pi. enlum. the specimen 

 in the Leverian Museum, and in another which I have seen, the 

 band was not only paler, but did not proceed above three quarters 

 of the way on the neck. The Carlsonian one was from Pomerania, 



