194 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



The Butcher-bird ( a2 ) bold, like his kinsman the 



Shrike, 

 With his bill was quite ready a death-blow to strike : 



(22) Order, Accipitres, (Linn.) Shrike, the Great, 

 the Red-backed, the Tyrant, the Butcher-bird, Wood- 

 chat, &c. 



The genus Lanius, (Linn.) or Shrike, consists of more 

 than one hundred and twenty species, scattered over the globe ; 

 three, the Excubitor or Great Shrike, the Collurio or Lesser 

 Butcher-bird, and the Rutilus or Wood-chat, found in this 

 country. The bill is straight at the base, the end hooked with 

 a tooth on each mandible near the end ; tongue jagged at the 

 end ; toes, the outer one connected to the middle one as far as 

 the first joint. The birds of this genus are noisy and quarrel- 

 some; prey on smaller birds, tearing them in pieces, and 

 sticking the fragments on thorns. The following are the chief. 



The Excubitor, Great-Shrike, Cinereous- Shrike, Great Cine- 

 reous-Shrike, Greater Butcher-bird, Mattages, Wierangle, Murder- 

 ing-bird, Shreek or Shrike, Night-jar, Mountain- Magpie, or 

 French-Pie, consists of three varieties ; one has the tail wedged ; 

 white at the sides ; back hoary ; wings black, with a white 

 body ; another has a white body ; legs yellowish ; the third has 

 the smaller wing coverts and shoulders reddish. In all the bill 

 is black, crown and neck hoary; body beneath white, with 

 pale brown arched lines ; tail white at the tip, except the two 

 middle feathers; cheeks white, with a black transverse line from 

 the base of the bill ; legs black ; length ten inches. Found oc- 

 casionally in England, and said to breed on some of our moun- 

 tains, coming in May, and departing in September ; it has been 

 however seen in this country in November. It is trained in 

 Russia for catching small birds. It does not tear its prey like 

 the hawk, but fixes it to a thorn for the purpose of pulling it to 



