black, those in the fore-arm inclining to grey. Primaries
and secondaries brownish-black, the former with a broad
white band and some of the latter tipped more or less with
white. Two middle pairs of tail-feathers black, the next
pair white at the base and tip, the next with still more
white, and the outermost, which are considerably shorter
than the rest, entirely white. The plumage beneath is
white, quite pure on the chin, throat and sides of the neck;
but suffused with a roseate blush, often fading into grey, on
the breast and sides of the body; the lower wing-coverts
blackisli-grey; the quills of the wings and tail beneath shew
the markings of the upper surface but less distinctly. The
legs, toes and claws, dull black.
The female and immature male have the black frontal band
mixed with brown, the colours generally less pure, and the
breast and belly marked with light grey transverse lines.
The young, as also represented in the woodcut, has the
upper surface of the body mottled with darker bars, generally
two near the tip of each feather, the terminal patches of the
wing-feathers being also tinged with pale brown.
The whole length of the Lesser Grey Shrike is from eight
to nine inches, from the carpus to the end of the longest
primary, four inches and a half; the first wing-featlier not
so long by a third as the second, which is slightly longer
than the fourth, but usually shorter than the third—the
longest in the wing.
The vignette below represents the breastbone of the Great
Grey Shrike, and shews the form which, with comparatively
few exceptions, is common to the whole of the Order Pas-
seres.
L a n iu s c o l l u r io , Linnseus*.
THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE.
Lanius collurio.
T h e lower figure of the engraving represents the male,
and the upper figure the ordinary appearance of the female,
of the Red-backed Shrike, a well-known and regular, though
somewhat local, summer-visitor to this country. It arrives
in Italy from Africa about the beginning of April, and
reaches England by the end of that month or early in May,
leaving again in September. I t frequents the sides of
woods and high hedge-rows, generally in pairs, and may
frequently be seen perched 011 the uppermost branch of an
isolated bush on the look-out for prey. The males have a
chirping note, not unlike that of the Sparrow, which is
* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 136 (1766).