j6.
VARIEGATED
S.
D escriftion.
■ of- other birds in the neft, taking hold of them by the neck, and
Itrangling them, beginning to eat them firft at the brain and
eyes: it, is more fond of grafshoppers arid beetles than of other
infedts, which it eats by morfels, and, when fatisfied, flicks the
remainder on a thorn; when kept in a cage, does the fame againft
the wires of it. It is called in the German language by -a name
Signifying great head, or hull head, from the five of that part. It
will alfo feed on fheep’s kidney, if in a x age, eating a whole one
every day. Like the cinereous Shrike, itmnly mocks the notes
of other birds, having none of its own-; -and this merely, like that,
to decoy. It is faid to be, in this imitative art, an adept; if
money is counted over at midnight, in the place where one of
thefe is'kept, fo as to make a;jingiing-noire, it ’begins to imitate
the fame found. When-fitting on the nell, the female is foon
difcovered, for on the approach of any one fhe'fets up an horrible
outcry.
X ’Ecorcheur varie, Brif. ern. li. p. 155.'N° j .
-Leller variegated Butcher-bird, Raii Syn. p. 19. A. 5.— Will. ern. p. iSj .
'■ J- HIS is grey on the upper part of the body, and rufous white
beneath, ftriated both above and below tranfverfely with
'brown : the fcapulars are rufous white, bounded by a parallel
black ft ripe : tail black ; the three outer feathers rufous white at
the bafe and tips ; the outer one wholly rufous white on the outer
edge.
This Ihould feerri to be the female of the former, did not the
markings of the tail forbid the fuggeltion.
l a
S H R I K E ,
La Pie-griefche rouiTe, Brif. ont. ii. p. 14,7, Tv’ 3.— Buf. elf. i. p 301.—
PI. enl. 9. f. 2. the male, and 31. f. 1. the female.
-Ampeiis Dorfo grifeo, macula ad aures longitudinal^ Fn. Suec. edit. rma.
-N° 180. t. 2. feem.
Kleiner Neun-toder, Frifch. pi. 61. male andfern,
Ampeiis 3" Kram. Elench. p. 363.
Lanius minor cinerafcens, &c. Raii Syn. p. 19. A. 6.
Another Sort of'Butcher-bird, Will. orn. p. 89. §4.
Wood Chat, Br. Zed. N° 73.
g I Z E of the two laft. Bill horn-colour; feathers round the
bafe whitilh: head, and hind part of the neck, bright bay:
from the bafe of the bill, over the forehead, and through the eyes
on each fide, a ftreak of black, palling down the neck on each
fide : back dufky : fcapulars white: upper tail coverts grey:
wing, coverts - dulky : quills black; near the bottom of each a
white fpot: the two middle tail feathers are black; the others
are the fame, but the muter margin and tips are whitilh: legs
black.
The female is reddilh on the upper. parts of the body, the under
parts dirty white: everywhere tranfverfely ftriped with brown:
tail re'ddilh brown, marked near the end with dulky, and tipt
with re'd.
Mr. Pennant does not deferibe this bird from his own jnfpec-
tion ; and I muft confefs that it has never come under mine; I
fuppofe therefore that it is not common in England.
M. de Buffon does not talk of it as uncommon, but gives it as
his opinion that the three laft mentioned are mere varieties of
each other; a fadl which, from my own obfervation, I cannot
deny.
169
WOOD CHAT
$;.
D escription.
F emale.