14 TiiK WooDciiAT Shrikk 



The adult male has the middle of the forehead, front of erowu, lores, ear- 

 coverts, sides of neck, and back black ; an elongated white spot above each nostril ; 

 crown and nape bright chestnnt ; lower back grey, shading into whitish on the 

 rump and upper tail-coverts ; wings black, the coverts and secondaries tipped with 

 white, the primaries white at the base ; tail black, tipped with white, the two 

 outermost feathers white at the base, and with white onter web ; the nnder surface 

 white, the flanks washed with bnff; bill black; feet dark brown; iris hazel. The 

 female is duller in colonring than the male, the black parts suffused with rufous. 

 The voung are russet-brown, streaked and spotted above with dark brown and 

 whitish, the wing- feathers broadl}- bordered and tipped with rufous ; the tail also 

 tipped with rufous, the outermost feathers pale ; nnder surface heavil}- barred with 

 brown ; bill yellowish horn-brown ; feet darker horn-brown. 



Like the Red-backed Shrike, this species hannts chiefly open or thinl}' timbered 

 country ; but in Algeria, from what Dixon says, it appears to frequent the open 

 spaces in forests of evergreen oak ; and Lord Lilford observes (Birds of North- 

 amptonshire, Vol. I, p. 78) " In Southern Spain, where the Woodchat is a very 

 common summer visitor, it is to be met with in all sorts of localities — the outskirts 

 of woods, olive-groves, gardens, and occasionally the great open treeless plains, 

 where the tall thistles alone offer it a perch or look-out station. In general habits 

 it much resembles the Red-backed Shrike, but so far as I know does not attack 

 small birds, which show no fear of it as they do of the former bird." 



Seebohm, speaking of the food of the Woodchat, says that it " is composed 

 of beetles, grasshoppers, and many other insects, which, like the other Shrikes, it 

 will spit on thorns for the pnrpose of securing them nntil the}- are eaten. It 

 is often seen on the wing, like a Flycatcher ; and when the capture of an insect 

 is made it returns to its old perching place, ever watchful for an object for a fresh 

 sally into the air." 



The nest of this species is placed in the fork of a low tree ; it is formed of 

 coarse bents and grasses, sometimes intermingled with cudweed ( GnaplialiuniJ and 

 wool ; the lining is either formed of fine grasses and moss, or of the flowers of 

 cudweed mixed with a few leaves and a little vegetable wool. The eggs number 

 from four to six, usuallj^ five, and somewhat resemble those of the Red-backed 

 Shrike, but are usually slightly larger ; the reddish variety which, in the better 

 known species, is local but not uncommon, is ver}' rarel}- met with in eggs of L. 

 potneraHus. 



Speaking of the Woodchat in Malta, Mr. C. A. Wright (Ibis, 1894, p. 59) 

 says : — " Perched on the uppermost twig of some tree, its shining white breast forms 

 one of the most conspicuous objects in the ornithological landscape in April. On 



