RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 509 



the landscape glows in beauty, and nature teems with life. 

 Hark to that sparrow-like note issuing from the stunted sloe- 

 hedge. It is our friend the Red-backed Shrike. His black 

 cheek and bold mien bespeak the preyer. There he sits in the 

 very attitude of the Flycatcher. Now mark his flight, for he 

 is on wing — a miniature windhover. He has seized his prey, 

 a cock-chafer, and bears it to yon solitary hawthorn bush. 

 How very singular is the flight of this Flusher : it is undu- 

 lating, but the tail is kept straight out, like that of the Long- 

 tailed Tit, the feathers being held very close together, so that 

 an observer might imagine the bird to have only one feather 

 in it. 



" This species is very regular in its visits in certain localities, 

 indeed nearly as regular as the Flycatcher. For instance, in 

 the month of June in 1837, and the two succeeding years, I 

 found its nest in an old crab pollard in Staffordshire ; and the 

 gentleman in whose grounds this nest was found assures me that 

 a pair of these birds had a nest in the pollard for several years 

 previous. When the bird alights, which it commonly does 

 upon the ranpikes of an old maple or crab, or ash, it has a pe- 

 culiar way of moving its tail up and down, after the manner of 

 the Robin, or rather, may I be allowed to say, of the Magpie ; 

 and 1 am not certain whether this habit is not conspicuous in 

 the Flycatcher. The bird which I noticed in the neighbour- 

 hood of Ganendon Park we shot, and on opening it we found 

 nothing but remains of beetles, cock-chafers, and other insects. 

 The nest is large and put together in rather a slovenly way, the 

 outside being formed of twigs, fibrous roots, and green moss, of 

 the same sort as that which the hedge-sparrow iises, and the 

 lining of hair. Looking at the nest, one would take it for that 

 of a Missel Thrush, inasmuch as a great deal of wool is in- 

 wrought amongst the twigs, around the exterior, which gives 

 it a slovenly appearance, as I have said. I have not seen this 

 bird after August is out, and therefore conclude that it leaves 

 us early after the breeding season. This Shrike has a habit of 

 perching on the topmost as well as the outside twig of a hedge 

 or bush, so that one might at a distance take it for a Yellow 

 or Corn Bunting." 



