L. minor, Lin. Sec. ; L. Italicus, Lath. Lesser or Itali an Grey Shrike. Cinercous above ; throat white ; breast and flanks rose-coloured ; the black bands near the eyes united on the forehead into a broad fillet. A little smaller than the preceding, and now proved, from its habits, and other circumstances, to be a distinct species. The female is somewhat rufous beneath. Occurs not only in Italy, but also in France, Spain, and Russia. It may be readily distinguished from the preceding, by its rapid, straight, and easily sustained flight; by its cry, its habit of fre quently halting on the ground, a stone, or some little emi nence; by its expression of anxiety and suspicion, and by its escaping out of sight when approached. The female lays five or six oblong eggs, of a greenish white, and encircled about the middle with clots of greenish-brown and cine reous-grey. This species readily learns to imitate the song of other birds.
L. ruficollis, Gold. Sec.; L. ruins, Lin.; L. maims, Lath.; L. Pomeranus, Lin. and Gtnel. Wood-chat Shrike. Black and white, with the front and eye-stripe black ; back of the head, and upper part of the neck ferruginous. Not very uncommon in some parts of Europe and Africa, but so extremely rare in this country, that hardly a single spe cimen exists among our collections. It has many of the habits of the Excubitor and Collurio, with the last of which it was long confounded as a variety ; but the recent observations of Levaillant, Sonnini, Montagu, and Vieillot, no longer permit us to hesitate in ranking it as a separate species. Length, seven inches, and stretch of wing about a foot and a half. The woodchat shrike is a bold and un daunted bird, and endowed with such strength of bill as to pierce the hand through a double glove. The bird catch ers in Egypt, accordingly, who sell it as an article of food, are in the habit of tying its bill as soon as it is taken. Like the grey shrike and the flasher, it preys on small birds, vermin, and the larger insects, transfixing them on the thorns of the trees and bushes which they frequent, and also inveigling birds by an accurate imitation of their Fong. It appears in Prance in the spring, where it breeds, and departs in autumn, though several remain during the year; and in Africa, where they abound, they seem to be quite stationary. The nest, which is somewhat smaller than that of the grey shrike, is constructed of analogous materials, and with not less art and neatness. The eggs are generally five or six, of a somewhat rounded form, and whitish-green, with some large, and a great many small cinereous spots. Neither the colours of the bird, nor its habits, appear to suffer any alteration from the in fluence of climate ; for Levaillant, a very competent judge, could discern no difference in these respects between those of Lorraine and those of Africa.
L. collurio, Lin. &c.; L. spinitorquens, Beehst. Red backed Shrike, Lesser Butcher-Bird, or Flasher. Head grey ; eye-streak black ; back and wing-coverts ferrugi nous; breast, sub-roseate. The male weighs eight drachms, and the female ten; and the former measures six inches and one-fourth in length, and the latter set en inches. In
the male, the quills are brown, and the tail is composed of twelve feathers, longest in the middle, more or less white at the base, black towards the end, and faintly tipt with white, except those in the middle, which are wholly black. In the female, all the upper parts are of a ferru ginous brown ; the back of the neck is dashed with grey ; beneath the eye there is a brown streak ; the breast and sides are dirty white, marked with numerous semi-circu Jar dusky lines ; the middle of the belly and the vent are white, the quill and tail feathers brown, and the outer web of the exterior feathers of the tail white.
The red-backed shrike is diffused in the north and south of Europe, in Senegal, and the south of Africa, and has been observed at Pondicherry. It visits us in May, and departs in September, and is supposed to be somewhat local, being not uncommon in Devonshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Shropshire. It is partial to the out skirts of forests, and to inclosed moist situations, and grounds that abound in bushes. In other respects, it evinces many of the habits of its congeners. It usually makes its nest in some thick hedge, composing it of moss and fibrous roots, put together with wool, and lined with hair. It lays five or six eggs, rather blunt at the ends, and either pink-coloured, with rufous spots, or yellowish, with spots of greenish-ash in the form of a zone. Ac cording to other accounts, they are white, or bluish-white, with dusky spots; so that we may suppose they are liable to vary. There are two broods in the year, and the eggs of the second are said to have smaller, and more thinly scattered spots. If any pet-son approach the nest, the fe male makes an importunate and chattering noise. The male has a chirping note, not very dissimilar from that of the house sparrow, and he sometimes attempts a sort of song. Seated behind the thick foliage of a bush, he will occasionally succeed in deceiving young birds by his mimic strains; but the old ones, it is alleged, are not to he so trepanned. He transfixes the larger insects, particularly the chafer, on a thorn, and tears off the body, leaving the wing-cases, wings, and head. Colonel Montagu kept a young brood of this species for some time; but though they lived in amity for about two months, they then be came very pugnacious, and two out of four were killed. The other two, which were chained, as goldfinches often are, were extremely docile, and would come at a call for the sake of a fly, of which they were particularly fond. When raw meat was given to them, they would endeavour to fasten it to some part of their cage, in order to tear it ; and they would eat mice and small birds chopped in pieces, with the feathers, fur, and bones, which they dis gorged like the hawk tribe. One of them fell a sacrifice to swallowing too large a quantity of mouse-fur, which strangled it ; and the other, which had become pampered, died of epilepsy, while feeding on insects.