295 



COLLARED SHRIKE, 



Lanius coUaris. L, niger, suhtus albus, scapularibus albis, cauda 



cuneata albo marginafa. 

 Black Shrike, white beneath, with white scapulars, and cune- 



ated tail edged with white. 

 Lanius collaris. cauda cuneiformi, corpore nigro subtus alba, 



remigibus primoribus basi albis. Lin. Syst. Nat; 

 Pie-griesche du Cap de Bonne Esperance. PL Enl. 4//. 1 . 

 Le Fiscal. Levaill. ois. pi. 6). 6'2. 



Size of the Grey Shrike: colour above black, 

 beneath white, the white running from each side 

 of the lower part of the neck behind the shoulders^ 

 and meeting on the lower part of the back : tail 

 cuneated, the side-feathers tipped with white : bill 

 black; legs reddish. Native of the interior of 

 Africa, and not uncommon about the Cape of 

 Good Hope. 



When this bird, says Levaillant, sees a locust, a 

 mantis, or a small bird, it springs upon it, and im- 

 mediately carries it off, in order to impale it on a 

 thorn, and is so dextrous in this operation that the 

 thorn always passes through the head of the bird 

 or insect thus transfixed. If it cannot find a 

 thorn, it fixes the head of the animal between a 

 division of two small branches, and this with as 

 much address as if performed by human means. 

 Every animal which it seizes undergoes exactly 

 the same process, and it thus continues to commit 

 fresh murders all the day long, being continually 

 preying, so that one would suppose it actuated by 

 a desire of mischief rather than the necessity of 



