5 6 
BRITISH BIRDS. 
OF THE SHRIKE. 
... f 
The lafh clafs we Shall mention of birds of the 
rapacious kind is that of the Shrike, which, as M. 
Buffon obferves, though they are Small and of a 
delicate form, yet their courage, their appetite for 
blood, and their hooked bill, entitle them to be 
ranked with the boldeft and the moll fanguinary of 
the rapacious tribe. This genus has been various- 
ly placed in the fyflems of naturalills ; Sometimes 
it has been claffed with the Falcons, Sometimes 
with the Pies, and has even been ranked with the 
harmlefs and inoffenfive tribes of the PalTerine 
kind, to which indeed, in outward appearance at 
leak, it bears no fmall refemblance. Conforma- 
ble, however, to the latell arrangements, we have 
placed it in the rear of thofe birds which live by 
rapine and plunder ; and, like moll of the connec- 
ting links in the great chain of nature, it will be 
found to poflefs a middle quality, partaking of thofe 
which are placed on each fide of it, and making 
thereby an eafy tranfition from the one to the o- 
ther. 
The Shrike genus is diflinguiflied by the follow- 
ing ch ara£te rillics : The bill is llrong, ftraight at 
the bafe, and hooked or bent towards the end ; the 
upper mandible is notched near the tip, and the 
bafe is furnifbed with briftles ; it has no cere ; the 
