This Shrike is one of the regular visitors from the Continent, coming to Great Britain in autumn and winter. In England it has even been seen during the summer, but it has not bred with us. Lizards, mice, shrews, frogs, and insects, especially beetles and grasshoppers, it feeds on, as well as small birds.
The Great Grey Shrike is 9·5 inches in length. The back is light ashen-grey; underparts dingey white, brow whitish; from the base of the bill a broad black band passes over the eye to near the ear. Bill, legs, wings and tail black: the wings, however, have a white patch, and also the feathers on both sides of the tail show a white border. On the underparts of the female bird, faint stripes of a darker shade are discernible. The bill is indented at the point and has a hook. The bird builds its nest in trees and lays five or six eggs, occasionally seven, greenish-white speckled with grey.
A Watchful Mother.
USEFUL.