48 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
attractive to their fellows. With insects I think the 
contrary is the case; the bird has no need to impale a 
moth or a humble-bee in order to devour it; and it is 
my belief that this is practised as a lure to entice small 
birds. Thisidea is strengthened by the careful man- 
ner in which the insect is generally transfixed. I was 
one day rambling on the skirts of a wood which divides 
Thoresby Park from the forest, where, amongst the 
heath and fern surrounding it, many young thorn trees 
were growing, the hedge inclosing the wood being a 
favourite haunt of the red-backed shrike. Something 
on one of these thorn-bushes caught my eye, and on 
going up I found it was a large egger moth impaled 
on a strong thorn, The thorn projected at least half an 
inch through the body of the moth, and so little was it 
injured that it was difficult to understand how the bird 
placed it there. But the bush stood in such a secluded 
spot, surrounded by ferns as high as my breast, and at a 
distance from any path, that I could come to no other 
conclusion than that it was the work of the shrike. If 
it had not been intended as a decoy, such a bonne 
bouche would hardly have remained undevoured by the 
shrike, for the body was quite dry, and it had evidently 
been there some days. However, the specimen was 
such a fine one, and so artistically “pinned,” that I cut 
off the branch as it was, and carried it home. 
A much rarer member of this family is the Woodchat 
Shrike (Z. rufus), of which I am glad to record the oc- 
currence, one having been killed in the forest near the 
entrance to Thoresby Park called the Buckgates, in 
May, 1859, by Mr. H. Wells. It is abundant on the 
Continent, and the late Mr. Hay described it as breeding 
in the Netherlands. Its eggs have the same zone of 
