[f. BUTCHER sb. + BIRD (see quot. 1802): Cf. F. bouchari ‘un des noms vulgaires de la pie-grièche.’ Littré.] A name given to several species of shrike (Laniadæ): Lanius excubitor, L. tertius, L. cinereus, etc.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., 146. Lanius or Butcher bird, is of three several kinds.
1674. Ray, Eng. Birds, Coll. 82. The great Butcher-bird called in the Peak of Derbyshire Wirrangle, Lanius cinereus major.
1679. Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 229. The Butcher-bird or Wierangel, here called the Shreek or French-Pye.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xii. 109. The butcher-bird transfixes its prey upon the spike of a thorn, whilst it picks its bones.
1846. Gard. Chron., 517. The red-backed shrike or butcher-bird.
