THE GREAT, OR ASH-COLOURED SHRIKE. 55 
contest. The colours of the plumage are pleasing 
shades of grey, rufous, or white, interrupted by 
decided black markings on the head, wings, and 
tail. Our native birds are migratory, being either 
summer or winter visitants, and indeed the great 
proportion of species in other countries, also par- 
tially travel at the breeding time, pass at the 
change of seasons from one distant part of a 
continent to another, or seek altogether a more 
genial or otherwise suitable climate, wherein to 
spend the winter, or the season of incubation. 
In disposition they are solitary, seldom appearing 
in greater numbers than the amount of the last 
brood, and most frequently in pairs, or single. 
They appear to delight more in woodland 
districts than in wild or extensive forests ; and 
in Britain are commonly found about the well- 
wooded hedgerows or parks of the south. Their 
food consists of small birds, together with their 
young, small mammalia, reptiles, and the larger 
insects. We are not sure that the manner in 
which the prey is captured has yet been noticed.* 
* The indefatigable Wilson says, speaking of the great 
American Shrike, that he resorts to stratagem, but at the 
same time, that he can “at any time seize upon small 
birds by mere force of flight. I have seen him in an open 
field dart after one of our small sparrows with the rapidity 
of an arrow, and kill it almost instantly.” And again of 
the Loggerhead, (L. Ludovicianus,) that “ it sits, for hours 
together, on the fence, beside the stacks of rice, watching 
like a cat, and as soon as it perceives a mouse, darts on it 
like a hawk.” — N. Amer. Ornith. Edit. Sir W. J. i. 
pp. 77 and 344. 
