The Great Giey Shrike in Captivity. 167 
a formidable looking beak, the upper mandible of which is 
hooked and well adapted to get a firm grip of its prey and to 
tear the skin and flesh. It is a fine active bird, continually 
hopping and jnmping about its cage, dropping, spreading and 
raising its tail and at the same time jerking its body up and down. 
This fine species is not a resident with us, but is a fairly 
regular visitor to this country from the Continent in autumn and 
winter ; only occasionally has it been observed here in spring 
and summer, and there is no evidence that it has ever bred in 
tliis country. 
For a time I kept it in a large cage, afterwards it enjoyed 
tlie range of a large flight aviary, in which were fixed several 
rather tliick perches ; across two of these perches cross-pieces 
with projecting nails were so fixed that the bird might impale 
its food. In the cage, which contained no projecting nails or 
other .sharp points, it was by no means easy for it to rend its 
prey, though it accomplished this by getting a firm grip and then 
violently shaking the bird or mouse and getting small pieces 
thus ; it abso forced its prey between the wires of the cage where 
it held for a time and thus by repeating the operation again and 
again it was enabled to satisfy its hunger. After it had been in 
the aviary about half an hour it was given a freshly-killed Green- 
finch ; out of sight through an observation hole I closely watched 
it. It immediately pounced on the Greenfinch, gripping it by 
the head and flew on to the end perch ; from there it flew on to 
one of the cross perches near one of the nails above mentioned 
and tried to impale the bird thereon. After several attempts it 
got the neck on the point of the nail, with the body of the bird 
hanging on the other side, and pulled the head downwards ; by 
doing so the nail was forced through the neck of the bird, and 
was ready for the Shrike to devour. It first attacked the liead of 
the bird, tearing away some of the feathers, and gulping down 
the skin, flesh, and feathers together. After it had cleared the 
feathers and skin away from the skull, the Shrike broke it with 
a few blows of its strong beak, and ate the brains. When it had 
devoured the flesh and skin from around the nail on which the 
dead bird had been fixed, the rest of the body fell to the ground. 
Down flew the Shrike, and seized the bird by the part of neck 
