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Rock Thrush's strain ; as he sang on, his amatory instincts 

 grew, and he began to bow as he sang, raising himself to 

 his full height, and then bowing grotesquely, first on one 

 side and then on the other. As he sang on, he moved back- 

 wards and forwards, bowing all the time, until at last he fairly 

 bowed his astonished brother bird off the perch. Presently there 

 came a pause, and then the singing and bowing set in again ; once 

 more he bowed his fellow off the perch, and so pleased was he, 

 that he fired off the rest of his spirits in a continuation of clattering 

 war cries, swaying his tail excitedly ; the performance ended, he 

 flew wildly backwards and forwards from one end of the aviary cage 

 to the other, as though seized with a paroxysm of migratory fever. 



I must not dwell much longer upon the Red-backed Shrike ; 

 but before I bring my remarks on this species to a close, let me 

 give you an instance of the self-possession of one of my subjects. 

 On December 6th, I offered the two male Shrikes each a Meal- 

 worm. Now they were each devouring a lump of meat, holding 

 it between their feet, as they could not spit it, and tearing it into 

 shreds with their bill. What were they to do, when a luscious 

 Mealworm dangled before their eyes? In their despair they 

 war-hooped for a minute or so ; then No. 2 dropped his lump of 

 meat with a thud of regret, and seized the fat grub. Not so No. i. 

 Scorning his brother's weakness, he sidled up to me on one leg, 

 holding his lump of meat in the other, and took the Mealworm 

 with his beak. It happened, however, to be a very lively grub, 

 and resented being devoured by a Shrike on one leg, by such 

 vigorous wriglings, that No. i was at last fain to drop his meat. 

 He then bolted the Mealworm in a great hurry, and swooped 

 down upon the morsel of meat as if it was of priceless value. 



And here I should observe that Shrikes, like Hawks and many 

 other birds, disgorge the indigestible portions of their food in 

 pellets. Whenever, therefore, these young Shrikes threw up a 

 pellet, even at night, they generally flew down to find another bit 

 of meat or other food, to supply the newly-created vacuum. 



Before taking leave of these Red-backed Shrikes, it remains for 

 me to point out that a sort of intermediate moult commenced 



