( 13 ) 

 The greater Butcher-Bird. Lanius cinereus major. 



Numb. XIII. 



IT is equal in Bignefs to the common Blackbird; its Weight is three Ounces; its 

 Length from the Bill end to the Tail end is ten Inches and a half; its breadth 

 when the Wings are extended, fourteen Inches : The Bill from the Tip to the Angles 

 of the Mouth, an Inch long, black, hooked at the End, and furnifhed with an Angle 

 or Tooth on each Side, like that of the Keftrel, Sparrow-Hawk, and leffer Birds of 

 this Kind : The Tongue is flit or forked at the End and rough 5 in the Palate is a 

 Fiflure or Cleft, and above the Cleft a hollow Cavity equal to the Tongue; the Nof- 

 trils are round, about which grow black ftiff Hairs or Briftles; from the Corners of the 

 Mouth, on each Side through the Eyes, to the hind Part of the Head is drawn a black 

 Stroak; the Head, Back, and Rump are afh-coloured ; the Chin and Belly white. 



It hath in each Wing eighteen prime Feathers ; the Tips of all which excepting the 

 four outmoft, are white ; the lecond and third have alfo their exteriour Edges white ; 

 moreover, the firft or outmoft Feather begins to be white at the Bottom; all the 

 reft in Order as far as to the tenth, the white Part increafeth, fo that more than the 

 half of the tenth Feather is white ; from the tenth, in the following Feathers, the white 

 diminifiies again, yet in their interiour Edges it runs up to the Top ; in the laft, that 

 is thofe next to the Body it fails quite, elfe both the beam Feathers and the firft Ro\v 

 of covert Feathers are black : The Tail is made up of twelve Feathers, of which the 

 middlemoft are the longeft, by Meafure four Inches and a quarter ; the reft in Ordec 

 fhorter to the two outmoft, which are but three Inches and a half, the outmoft Feathers 

 are all over white, the middlemoft have only their Tips white, the reft of the Feathers 

 being black ; in the intermediate Feathers the black Part gradually diminilheth to the 

 outmoft ; whence (faith Aldrovandus) when it flies the white Part of the Tail fhews 

 like a Crefcent. 



The Legs and Feet are black j the outmoft Toe at the Bottom is joined to the 

 middlemoft. 



The Tefticles are round and little, one that was difteded had in the Stomach, Cat- 

 terpillars. Beetles, and Grajhoppers: It will alfo fet upon and kill, not only Imall 

 Birds, fuch as Finches and Wrens; but alfo Thntjhes, &c. It is a Bird of Paflage, 

 coming to us in Spring from Germatiy, France, &c. This Bird I received from my 

 honoured and good Friend Sir Robert Abdy. 





7he 



