Translation of Bechstein's Cage Birds. 413 



I have only spoken of those I have occasionally seen in Ger- 

 many, and which can be procured without much difficulty." 

 (Preface, p. iv.) 



The treatment of two hundred species is detailed in this 

 volume ; many, it must be confessed, are such as would hardly 

 receive the name of cage birds in Britain, as the gallinule, the 

 duck, and the crow ; others, again, are no very desirable 

 companions in an aviary, as the following anecdote will show : 

 the author is speaking of 



The Bed-backed Shrike (Lanins Qollurio) [treated of in p. 

 364. to 371. of this Number]. — u In the house, it must be 

 treated like the former (the red-headed shrike [Lanius pome- 

 ranus Lin.'] ), and kept in a wire cage ; for it would soon 

 kill its companions, as I experienced some years ago. The 

 bird I refer to had been three days without eating, although I 

 had offered him a great variety of dead birds and insects. On 

 the fourth day, I set him at liberty in the room, supposing 

 him too weak to hurt the other birds, and thinking that he 

 would become better accustomed to his new food if I left him 

 at liberty. Hardly was he set free than he seized and killed 

 a (hedge) dunnoc [hedge-chanter or hedge-sparrow], before 

 I had time to save it ; I let him eat it, and then put him 

 back into the cage. From this time, as if his fury were satis- 

 fied, he ate all that was given him." (p. 44.) That even so 

 fierce a bird as the red-backed shrike is susceptible of affection 

 towards other species of birds, appears from the following pas- 

 sage, extracted from an article by Mr. Sheppard, in the 

 Linncean Transactions: — " On July 31st, 1816, we observed 

 a pair of red-backed shrikes very busy in feeding a young 

 cuckoo which was perched on an oak. This fact confirms 

 Temminck's remark, who says that the cuckoo will some- 

 times lay its egg in the nest of the above-mentioned shrike. 

 It also contradicts Montagu, who asserts that " the yellow- 

 hammer's (yellow-bunting's) egg is larger than that of any 

 other bird in whose nest the cuckoo chooses to lay [see this 

 assertion by Montagu, and some of his context quoted in 

 our p. 291.]. We have heard the note of the old cuckoo as 

 late as the last day in July. The note of the female cuckoo 

 resembles that of the common gallinule [see in p. 384. of the 

 present Number]. A cuckoo has been observed to enter the 

 nest of a common pie, probably for the purpose of devouring 

 the eggs, which, according to Temminck, constitute part of 

 its food." This last conjecture, we may remark in passing, 

 is opposed to Mr. Blyth's opinion, p. 339. ; but Mudie, speak- 

 ing of the ovivorous propensity of the cuckoo, says : " Though 

 it is a very wary as well as a shy bird, we have caught it in 



