flight of the Great Shrike is “ interrupted, being performed
by je rk s ; and when perched, the tail is kept in constant
motion.” I t frequents groves and forests, and builds on
trees at some distance from the ground, making a nest of
roots, bents, and moss, lined with wool and feathers, the
latter appearing over the brim of the nest. The eggs are
from four to seven in number, white tinged with green, or
occasionally cream-colour, blotched irregularly with olive-
green, wood-brown and dull lilac of various shades : the
markings being sometimes suffused over the greater part of the
shell, at others collected into a more or less distinct zone.
The eggs measure from 1-17 to T01 by from ‘83 to -75 in.
The Great Grey Shrike has been obtained in most if not
in all of the English counties, and in some very many times.
I t has also occurred in Wales, though the records of its
appearance there are not numerous, probably from the
scarcity of observers. In Ireland it has been several times
obtained, chiefly, as appears from Thompson’s statements,
in the north. According to Mr. Robert Gray it is a regular
winter-visitant to the eastern parts of Scotland, but less
frequently towards the interior, while further to the west its
occurrence, though not uncommon, is at uncertain intervals.
No examples seem to he recorded from the Hebrides, hut
three are mentioned by Messrs. Baikie and Heddle as having
been obtained in the Orkneys, where it appears to he an
occasional winter-visitant, while in the Slietlands it has been
once seen by Dr. Saxby (Zool. s.s. p. 2561). I t does not seem
to have been observed in the Faeroes, but the Editor has been
assured by Mr. John Pell, the well-known falconer, whose professional
acquaintance with the Great Grey Shrike makes his
testimony valuable, that in 1815 he saw a bird of this species
in Iceland. I t occurs over the whole of Scandinavia, breeding
so far to the northward as lat. 71°, as it does in northern
Russia ; and it ranges across Asia, according to Herr Radde,
to South-eastern Siberia. But here a second allied species
may exist and possibly have been mistaken for it. Returning
to Europe it breeds not uncommonly in northern
and central Germany, Holland and Belgium, and is said to
be found in northern France throughout the year. Being of
essentially migrant habits it occurs in winter in southern
Europe; but, as Messrs. Dresser and Sharpe have well
shewn, in an able paper on this bird and its allies (Proc.
Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 590), as well as in their ! Birds of
Europe,’ its eastern and southern limits must at present be
considered undetermined, since two or three species so much
resembling it as to have been often mistaken for it seem to
replace it in the countries bordering the Mediterranean.
The ornithologists last named, who have done much to
correct several errors made by writers of great repute with
respect to Lanius excubitor and its kindred species, truly
state that it may he recognized from all its congeners by the
double white bar on the wing, caused by the basal half of
the secondaries as well as of the primaries being of that
colour. “ This second bar,” they continue, “ is assumed
gradually, and is more fully developed in adult birds, though
traces of it can in most cases be discovered on a careful
examination of the bases of the secondary quills.” The
non-appearance of this second white bar in certain specimens
has induced a belief, or at least a suspicion, among some
ornithologists in the occurrence in Great Britain of one of
the North-American Grey Shrikes—the so-called L. excubi-
toroides of Swainson, now shewn by Messrs. Sharpe and
Dresser to he identical with the well-known L. ludovicianus;
but it seems probable that, most of the Grey Shrikes taken
in this island being birds of the year, the second bar in
these specimens is not much developed and may he easily
overlooked. That such is the case may be gathered from
Mr. Robert Gray’s remark that nearly all the Scottish
examples which have come under his notice, while possessing
but one spot on the wing, have the under parts irregularly
barred or minutely freckled—an unmistakable sign of youth
in this species, though observable at all ages in the larger
Grey Shrike of North America, L. borealis, and, according
to Pallas, in another species described by him under the
name of L. major; the existence of this last, which is said
to come from Siberia, has however been doubted. To the