. A history of British birds . wings darker buff speckled with grey, andspotted with black and white ; upper surface of tail-featherspale buff, with five transverse grey bars ; all the under partspure white ; the toes dusky, the claws brown. The wingsreach beyond the end of the tail, and the edges of the wingand tail-feathers have the appearance of being worn, thefibres forming the web being of unequal length, and thewings of these birds therefore, when moved in the air, makevery little or no noise. In some specimens, generally foundon dissection to be females or young males, the undersurface
. A history of British birds . wings darker buff speckled with grey, andspotted with black and white ; upper surface of tail-featherspale buff, with five transverse grey bars ; all the under partspure white ; the toes dusky, the claws brown. The wingsreach beyond the end of the tail, and the edges of the wingand tail-feathers have the appearance of being worn, thefibres forming the web being of unequal length, and thewings of these birds therefore, when moved in the air, makevery little or no noise. In some specimens, generally foundon dissection to be females or young males, the undersurface of the body is fawn-colour. The whole length ofthe bird is about fourteen inches. A good deal of local variation is observable in this species,and in particular Danish examples are very darkly coloured,having the facial disk of a rusty-red. Mr. Stevenson hasrecorded the occurrence in Norfolk of such a specimen,which was probably an accidental visitor to this country offoreign origin. GREAT GHEY SHRIKE. PASSERES. 199LAN II Lanius excubitor, Linnaeus*.THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE. Lanius excubitor. Lanius, Ltnnreunf.—Bill short, thick and straight at the base, compressed ;upper mantlible hooked at the point, with a prominent tooth ; base of the billbeset with hairs directed forwards. Nostrils basal, lateral, oval. Wings ofmoderate size ; the first cjuill-feather shorter than the second, the third thelongest. Tarsus longer than the middle toe, which is united at its base to theouter toe. The Great Grey Shrike, the largest British species ofthe genus is a regular but not very common winter visitorto this country. On a few occasions it has been seen duringsummer; yet it has never been ascertained to breed here,—though it commonly does so in Holland, Belgium andnorthern France, and the large size of the nest and thevariable colour and markings of the eggs of the Red-backedShrike have in some instances led to the belief that theybelonged to the Great Shrike. * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i.
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsaun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds
