THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE. 

 Lanius excubitor, Linnaeus. 

 Plate 13. 



The Great Grey Shrike is a not very uncommon autumn and winter visitor 

 along the eastern parts of England and Scotland, occasionally occurring in 

 spring, and very rarely during summer. 



It is also found over a great part of Europe, ranging eastwards as far as 

 western Siberia. 



The large and bulky nest is made of twigs, dead grass, and moss, with a 

 lining of wool, hair, and feathers, and is placed in a fork of a branch, at some 

 distance from the ground. It contains five or six eggs, greenish-white in ground 

 colour, and blotched with olive-brown and purplish-grey. 



The Great Grey Shrike is in character bold and aggressive, and preys largely 

 on small birds and mice, besides beetles, moths, and grasshoppers. 



It has a habit, in common with the other members of the Shrike family, of 

 fixing its victims on a sharp thorn or between two twigs, and, in consequence, 

 has acquired the name of " Butcher-bird." 



When on the lookout, it usually perches on some bare branch of a tree or 

 tall hedge, ready to avoid danger or to pounce on any prey within reach. 



According to Seebohm {British Birds, vol. i. p. 600): "The song is some- 

 thing like that of a Starling " ; and it has also a rather harsh alarm-note. 



There are two forms of the Great Grey Shrike, both visiting this country, 

 viz. Lanius excubitor, the one drawn on the plate, having white bases to the 

 quill feathers of the wing, which extending to the secondaries, make a double 

 bar. 



In the other form, known as Lanius major, the white is confined to the 

 primary quills alone. 



The female resembles the male, but has faint greyish-brown bars on the 

 breast. 



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