28 SHRIKE. 



22. GEOFFROY'S SHRIKE. 



Le Geoffroy, Levail. Afr.n. 124. pi. 80. 81. 

 Lanius plumatus, Skaw's Zool. vii. 292. 



SIZE of a Thrush ; length 8| inches. Bill moderately stout, 

 strait, flat on the sides, and bent at the point, near which is a slight 

 notch, the colour dusky; eyes surrounded with a rugose, naked, 

 yellowish skin, indented on the margins ; the head furnished with a 

 crest, composed of long, soft feathers, pointing backwards; at the 

 base of which, over the nostrils, they are shorter, more stiff, and 

 point forward ; the colour of this double kind of crest is white; the 

 back of the head, round the eyes, and over the ears, dusky, or iron 

 grey, the rest of the neck beneath, from chin to vent white, and a 

 large portion of the same down the middle of the wing ; the back, 

 remainder of the wing, and quills blue-black, but the tips of five or 

 six of the quills white ; tail long, rounded, the two middle feathers 

 black, with white tips; the others the same, the white increasing as 

 they are more outward, and the two outer ones wholly white ; the 

 wings reach about half way on the tail ; legs yellow. 



Some individuals have the head less crested, and the white less 

 pure, appearing soiled or dirty; the bare space round the eyes smaller; 

 and these are probably the females ; in others, the crest, as well as 

 the bird, is less in size, and from these circumstances supposed to be 

 young ones. 



Inhabits Africa. M. Levaillant met with more than twenty 

 specimens of them, but is silent concerning their manners ; he only 

 says, that he found most of their bills covered with dirt, and from 

 thence concludes, that this was occasioned by searching for insects in 

 moist ground. 



