GREAT GREY SHRIKE. 
71 
Family L A N 1 1 D . 
G-REAT GrREY SHRIKE. Lanius excuhitoi\ Linnaeus. 
“ Cinereous Shrike,” “ Great Butcher-bird.” 
A rare winter visitant, not remaining to breed in Britain. — Harley recorded 
that he received a fine specimen, wounded but alive, on 4th Dec., 1848. Its 
discovery and capture were attributed to a fiock of Sparrows and Chaffinches 
drawn together by its appearance. Some days later (on 11th Dec.) he received 
a second — a fine male. Both were shot by the same person, a relative of 
Harley’s, at Knight Thorpe. Its flight was described as remarkable, being 
undulating, and occasionally, also, like that of a Wagtail. The two birds quoted 
above were mounted for Harley by the late Mr. Widdowson, one of which he 
kept for himself, the other was given to Mr. Simson, of G-reat G-len. Since 
then Mr. Widdowson informed me of a specimen picked up dead by the gardener 
at Little Dalby Hall, on 25th March, 1883. I purchased for the Museum a 
poor mounted specimen, apparently a female, said to have been shot by a keeper, 
between Syston and Queniborough in the autumn of 1882. I am informed by 
Turner that another was shot at Ansty some years since. Mr. Ingram, who 
wrote me that one was “ shot at Knipton, amongst Fieldfares, by Mr. Brewster,” 
kindly sent me a nice female specimen* in the flesh, shot at Belvoir, 8th Feb., 
1885. Its weight was a little over 2^ oz. Length, from tip of bill to tip of 
tail, 10 inches; wing (carpus to tip) 3f ; tarsus 1 ; culmen tail 4|. The 
stomach contained foot and fur of a Field-lMouse. Mr. W. A. Evans was so 
fortunate as to shoot a fine female specimen (nearly adult) in a market-garden 
at New Parks, close to the town of Leicester, on 23rd Dec., 1885, and he 
remarked that its jerky motions, and general shape and colour, reminded him 
of a large Wagtail. This bird having been brought to me within an hour or so 
of being shot, I was enabled to make the following notes of weight, measurements, 
colours of soft parts, etc. : — Weight, a little over 2^ oz., or 1014 grains. Length, 
in a straight line from tip of beak to end of tail, inches ; wing (carpus to 
tip) 4^ ; tarsus 1 ; culmen ^ ; tail 4^. Colour of eye, very dark brown ; skin 
under eye, greyish-blue ; bill — upper mandible, light horn-brown at tip, becoming 
paler towards base ; lower mandible, dusky whitish-pink, becoming duller until 
terminating at point in bluish horn-colour ; gape, whitish-pink ; inside mouth, 
light pink ; chin, grey ; breast inclining to pink, strongly vermiculated with 
dusky lines ; abdomen, lighter grey ; flanks roseate ; tail of twelve feathers, 
* This specimen is undoubtedly the form known as Pallas’s Great Grey Shrike, Lanins 
major, Pallas, and, according to most authorities, should follow the present as another species. 
Having, however, worked at this group, my examination of a number of examples convinces 
me that L. major and L. homeyeri — the latter not yet recorded for Britain — are practically 
indistinguishable from L. excubitor, and not deserving of even .sut-specific rank — a contention 
which I hope soon to prove in a forthcoming article. 
