64 



BUTCHER-BIRD. 



a publican purchased for a shilling- what would have fetched two or 

 three guineas where its value was known : this rare wanderer was, how- 

 ever, so entirely unknown, that it was rejected at the second table as 

 improper food, in consequence of the pectoral muscles differing- in 

 colour from the other parts of the breast, a circumstance not unusual 

 in birds of the grous kind. Some country gentlemen supping at the 

 inn the following evening, and hearing of the circumstance, desired 

 that they might be introduced to the princely bird, and partook of it 

 cold at their repast. 



These birds pair early in the spring. The female lays two eggs on 

 the bare ground, which are about four weeks hatching. The young 

 follow the dams soon after they part from the egg, but are not capable 

 of flying for some time. The egg is larger than than of a turkey, of 

 an olive-brown colour, blotched with pale ferruginous and ash-coloured 

 spots. Their food is green corn, the tops of turnips, and various other 

 vegetables, as well as worms ; but they have been known to eat frogs, 

 mice, and young birds of the smaller species. It is not properly 

 migrative with us, as it only leaves its usual haunts in very severe 

 winters, when the downs are covered with snow for some time. Pressed 

 by hunger, it repairs to the more enclosed and sheltered situations in 

 small flocks, and even strays to a great distance. 



These occasional migrations always prove fatal. So large an object 

 soon attracts notice, and it rarely escapes the number of its pursuers. 

 This noble bird was formerly found in the woods of Yorkshire, and 

 even as far as Scotland, as we are informed by Hector Boece, and Sir 

 Robert Sibbald. It is common in some parts of Russia, and the 

 deserts of Tartary, also in some parts of Germany, but Temminck 

 says it is rare in Holland.* 



BUTCHER-BIRD {Lanius excuhitor, Linn^us.) 



*Lanias excubitor, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 135. 11. — Faun. Suec. No. 80. — Gmel. Syst. 

 1. p. 300. 11. — Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. p. 67. sp. 6. — Lanius, seu Collurio cinereus 

 major, Rati, Syn. p. 18. A. 3.— Will. p. 53. t. W.—Briss. 2. p. 141. 1.— 

 Greater Butcher Bird, Will. p. 87,—Albin, 2. p. 13.— Pie Grieehe, Buff. Ois. 

 1. p. 296. t. 20.— Ib. pi. Enl. 445.— Temm. Man. d'Orn. 1. p. 142.— Grauer 

 Wurger, Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 87. — Frisch, t. 59. — Blaauwe Klauwier, 

 Sepp. Nederl. Vog. t. p. 121.— Great Cinereous Shrike, Br. Zool. No. 71. t. 

 33.— Arct. Zool. 2. No. 127.— Lewin's Br. Birds, 1. 1. 30.— Lath. Syn. 1. p. 160. 

 4.— Mont. Orn. Diet.— Pull. Cat. Dorset, p. 4.— Bewick's Br. Birds, 1. p. 58. 

 — Don. Br. Birds, 4. t. W.Selby, pi. 43. fig. 1. p. 140. 



Provincial. — Mountain Magpie. Mattiges. Wireangle. Murdering 



Pie. Skreek or Shrike.* 



The weight of this species rather exceeds two ounces ; length ten 



inches, breadth fourteen ; the bill is black, strong, and much hooked at 



