near the larger end with a zone of rust-coloured spots ; in
some, again, the markings and spots are of a paler colour, and
more dispersed over the egg. It is not a wild bird, often
building close to houses and public roads. It is abundant
in some parts of the Netherlands, and arrives and departs
about the same time as Lanius collurio.”
This Shrike does not visit the higher northern parts of
the European Continent; but is found in Germany and
France, in which countries it appears in spring, and leaves in
autumn, as might be expected,—though M. Le Vaillant says
that he had shot the Woodchat in winter in Lorraine. M.
Viellot has remarked that the Woodchat makes choice of
odoriferous plants for the construction of part of its n e st;
and M. Lichtenstein has noticed the same thing in reference
to Lanius minor.
The Woodchat visits Switzerland, Provence, Italy, the
M orea, and Egypt. It is abundant in North Africa, and
is found at Senegal, and as far south as the Cape of Good
Hope, in both of which latter localities it is said to be stationary
all the year.
In the adult male, the beak is black, with the same sort of
tooth and depression near the point of the upper mandible
observed in the Red-backed Shrike; above the base of the
upper mandible is a narrow streak of white; the forehead,
round the eyes, the ear-coverts, and a small patch depending
therefrom, black ; irides hazel; crown of the head and nape of
the neck, rich chestnut re d ; the back black ; the scapulars
white; the rump grey; upper tail-coverts white: the wings
and wing-coverts black; the primaries white at the base,
forming a spot when the wing is closed ; the secondaries
white at the end: the central tail-feathers black ; the outer
feather on each side wholly white; the next on each side
with the proximal half white ; the distal half black, with a
white tip ; the next on each side with a white tip only.
The chin, throat, breast, belly, and under tail-coverts, white ;
legs, toes, and claws, black.
The whole length of the male here described was seven
inches and a half. The length from the carpal joint to the end
of the wing-feathers, four inches : the first wing-feather less
than half the length of the second ; the third, fourth, and
fifth, longer than the second ; the third the longest of the
whole.
The female has the head and neck dull red ; the scapulars
dirty white; the black colour of the back mixed with brown ;
the wing-coverts edged with red ; the breast dirty white; the
feathers of the flanks reddish tipped with brown.
The young bird of the year is reddish brown above, with
brown transverse lines ; wings and tail brownish black ; underneath
dirty white, with greyish transverse lines.
The young male in the British collection of Birds in the
British Museum, which has been already referred to as having
been killed in Kent, and a specimen of a young female in
the Museum of the Zoological Society, which bird belonged
to the collection of Mr. Vigors ; both these, apparently in
the plumage of the second or third year, are very much alike,
and may be thus described : Head, and nape of the neck, red ;
back and wings hair brown, without any transverse lines ;
scapulars and edges of the tertials yellowish white; rump
inclining to grey; tail-feathers clove brown; all the under
surface of the body dull white, tinged with red, but without
bars ; beak, legs, and toes, dark brown. Of this last pair of
birds, the female is the smaller.
In the illustration at the head of this article, the lower
figure represents an adult male bird, the upper figure is that
of a young bird of the year.