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THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD. 



Quite unlike any other of our summer migrants in appearance, the 

 Red-backed Shrike, or Butcher Bird, as it is more frequently called, also 

 differs from them all in habits, and from the majority in having no song to 

 recommend it to notice. It is a curious bird in its way, shy and retired 

 in its disposition, and prefers tall tangled hedgerows, or the thick foliage 

 of the lower branches of the oak, where it can sit unobserved, and dart 

 out upon its unsuspecting prey. It is a very hawk by nature, capturing 

 and killing mice, small birds, and moths and beetles of every size and 

 description. These when caught, are firmly impaled upon the long and 

 strong points of the white-thorn, for future consumption ; and the odds 

 and ends which may be found thus hung up, as it were, in the Butcher 

 Bird's larder, are worth notice. On one thorn, perchance, a blue tit- 

 mouse with its head off; on another a small meadow mouse, or perhaps 

 a harvest mouse ; on a third, a great dor-beetle, or a cockchafer, not 

 yet dead, but buzzing round and round upon the sharp thorn, and 

 trying in vain to effect its escape ; while above, below, and on all sides 

 may be seen the wingless bodies of large moths, the fluttering forms of 

 dragon-flies, or the remains of beetles. From this singular habit, the 

 bird has earned the name of Butcher Bird, not only in England, but in 

 other countries. In France it is termed the Flayer ; in Germany it is 

 known as the Strangler, or Garrotter. 



The Red-backed Shrike arrives here somewhat later than most of 

 the summer migrants, and is seldom seen before the first week in May. 

 They are generally found in pairs until after the young are hatched and 

 ready to fly, when the families keep together in little parties until at the 

 end of August or beginning of September they leave the country, and 

 cross the Mediterranean into Africa. They travel down the east coast 

 through Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia, to Natal ; and on the west coast 

 they have been met with in Great Namaqua Land, Damara Land, and 

 the Okavango region, where, according to Andresson, breeding goes on 

 in winter quarters. 



The distribution of this bird in the British Islands is very partial, 



