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. [Illustration: A Watchful Mother.] [Illustration: USEFUL. THE LESSER GREY SHRIKE.] THE LESSER GREY SHRIKE. (_Lanius minor._) The habits of this Shrike are, on the whole, those of the larger species, with this difference, that the Lesser Shrike, does not rob nests, but destroys insects, and therefore does good. It also, is a “Watchman.” It sits on a high point and flings its glances round about. Suddenly it darts down, looks about, finds its prey, and flies back to its former perch. When it is keeping watch over a place where the ground is covered with thick growth, it hovers at about half the height of a man, sometimes until it can see something that will serve as prey. If it finds nothing, it will cease to hover, and flies back to its post. Near the highroad it will flit onward from tree to tree, generally slightly in advance of a vehicle, till at last, at some point or other, it turns away over the fields and with a peculiar undulating flight returns to the spot where it started. The Lesser Shrike is a migrant, and departs for warmer places at the beginning of autumn, returning to its nesting place in this country in the spring. Its cry sounds like “_Keejay_.” It is by nature quarrelsome, but it embellishes and enlivens the neighbourhood. Inthe warmer parts of Europe, it is the most common of all the Shrikes. * * * * * This species only wanders occasionally to England, a mere straggler, on migratory flight. If it be seen it must be protected, as a useful species, from “the man the gun” who shoots to sell or to enrich his own private collection. The Lesser Shrike is smaller than the Great Shrike, but it is quite as beautiful and has the same deportment. Besides its smaller size, it is distinguished from its congener, by its black brow, the colour of which merges into that of the broad black stripe. The breast is a beautiful white, flushed with rose-colour. The white patch on the black wings is quite small. Otherwise the colouring is the same as that of the Great Shrike. Its nest is built in poplar trees bordering the highroad--sometimes in other trees. It employs sweet-scented plants in building the nest. It lays five or six pale green eggs, which have a speckled ring round the thicker end. THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE. (_Lanius collurio._)