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THE COLLARED SHKIKE. 



The collared slirike is a native of the Cape of Grood Hope. It is black and white 

 beneath ; the primary quills are white at the base ; the tail and middle feathers are 

 black, and the rest white. The length of the bird is twelve inches. 



THE llED-r,ACKED SHRIKE, OR FLUSHER.f 



Tliis elegant species is common on the continent of Europe, and in certain parts of 

 Britain. Everx'where it appears to be minatory. In its general habits, and its mode 

 of transfixing its prey upon thorns, it agrees with the great butcher bird, but feeds more 

 exclusively on large insects, particularly on beetles. Small field-mice, birds, nestlings, 

 and lizards, also fall a prey to its rapacity. 



Bechstein kept one of these birds in confinement, which refused at first to take any 

 food, though supijlicd with a great quantity of dead birds and insects. " On 1 he fourth 

 day," says Beclistuin, " I set hiui 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 

 he were left at liberty. No sooner was he set free than he seized and killed ii hedge- 

 sparrow, before I had time to save it. I let him cat it, and then j)ut him back into the 

 cage. From tliis time, as if his fury was satisfied, he ate all that was given him." As 

 a songster, this bird occupies no mean rank ; when at liberty it utters a pleasing and con- 

 tinuous strain, perched on the top of a bush in the common, or on the lower branch of a 

 tree at no great distance from its nest. It is a great imitator of the songs of otlier birds, 

 which it interweaves with its own strain, and tluis mixes together passages of the swallow, 

 the goldHiicli, the garden-warbler, the nightingale, redbreast, and lark. In caiitivity, it 

 imitates the canarj' or lark, its song being composed of the warblings of the birds the 

 cages of which are Inmg near it. Bechstein says that it is a very animated bird iu 

 captivity, and that if it l)o wislied to clear a room of all the flies, one of these birds si't at 

 liberty from its cage will soon effect it. It catches them flying with great skill ami 

 agility. "When a thorny branch is given it, it impales all its flics, making, at the 

 same time, the most droll and singular movements. I'liis species easily and ((ui<'kly 

 learns to whistle airs, but forgets them with tlic same facility, in order to learn 

 new ones." 



" Ltinius CoUaris. 



t Lanius Collurio. 



