THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE 43 



hooked beak. I have often watched this bold bird flutter 

 down into the long grass and fasten upon a shrew or field- 

 mouse, a grasshopper or a small lizard. He sometimes drops 

 down to the ground and searches amongst dung or on newly- 

 ploughed land for beetles ; and not unfrequently he robs 

 a nest of the half-fledged young. The Eed-backed Shrike is 

 almost as great a terror to the little birds as the Sparrow- 

 hawk, and doubly dangerous, for they are apt to approach 

 him quite unconscious of harm, or allow him to fly up 

 to them w^hen they are busy feeding on the stubbles. His 

 wings, however, are not sufficiently powerful to enable him to 

 fly his victims down like a Hawk ; he comes upon them un- 

 awares, or chases the w^ounded, the weakly, and the young. 

 Occasionally he may be seen to poise for a moment above the 

 hedges or the brambles and long grass, hovering like a Kestrel ; 

 but his usual flight is very drooping and resembles that of the 

 Green Woodpecker. 



Perhaps the most interesting peculiarity in the habits of 

 the Eed-backed Shrike is its custom of conveying most of its 

 captures to some thorn bush, on the spines of which it 

 impales them, and devours them at leisure. Each bird will 

 have some particular spot which serves it as a kind of larder, 

 to which it conveys small birds, beetles, and mice. The 

 Shrike's feet are not sufficiently powerful to hold its victims 

 while it tears them to pieces with its sharp -hooked bill ; 

 hence it spits them on the thorns, which serve as a 

 vice. I have seen small birds hanging with the head 

 through a forked twig ; and many objects are spitted which 

 are never eaten. On the other hand, I have reason to believe 

 that the Shrike draws upon his store when food becomes 

 temporarily scarce. 



The alarm -note of the Eed-backed Shrike, once heard, 

 can never be mistaken for that of any other species. It puts 

 one most in mind of the sac-sac of the Fieldfare, but is 



