VII LANIIDAE 535 
and Red-backed Shrikes, of which only the last-named breeds in 
our island. The Sub-family contains many of these quarrelsome, 
rapacious birds, often seen perched on the tops of bushes, or chasing 
each other along the hedge-rows. The flight is strong and rapid, 
but undulating and brief; the food, which may be taken on the wing, 
or procured upon the ground, consists of small mammals and birds, 
insects, snakes, lizards, frogs, or even crabs and fruit, the creatures 
not devoured at once being impaled on thorns or spiky leaves. The 
“larders” are usually near the nest, which is a bulky mass of twigs, 
grass, and the like, with a softer lining, placed in a thick bush or 
fairly high up a tree; the four to seven eggs vary from green to 
reddish-buff or whitish, and are spotted, blotched, and generally 
zoned, with brown, red, olive, green, or a little grey. Sometimes 
the male ineubates. The usual note is harsh and grating, but shriller 
cries or sweeter songs are not uncommon, while certain species are 
good mimics. Pellets of the indigestible portions of the food are 
ejected after eating, as in Birds of prey, and elsewhere. 
Sub-fam. 5. Prionopinae-—The “ Wood-Shrikes” are usually 
dull in colour, though some have the normal browns, greys, and 
blacks relieved by bright chestnut, fawn, or yellowish-white, and 
several are black and white, or uniform black. They frequent trees 
and bushes, and eat molluscs and fruit; but live chiefly upon insects 
captured on the branches or on the ground, if not by darting into 
the air from a perch. Their flight, rapid but short, 1s com- 
monly performed with quivering wings; they hop easily upon the 
ground; while their notes take the form of a rather pleasing 
Thrush-like song or a harsh chatter. The shght, loose nest, built 
in a low fork, in the hollow of a stump, or even on a rocky ledge, 
is made of moss, grass, bark, roots, wool, feathers, lichens, cobwebs, 
or downy seeds ; the three eges being white, greenish, or buff, often 
with brown, black, and grey blotches, dashes, freckles, or zones. 
Grallina, the “ Magpie-Lark” of Australia and New Guinea, 
doubtfully placed here, possesses vocal organs abnormal for an 
Oscinine bird! Graceful and tame, it frequents homesteads, 
stream-sides, and swamps, having a heavy, flapping flight, utter- 
ing a shrill, plaintive whistle, and plastering a nest of mud and 
grass on some horizontal bough. The three or four eggs are 
white or pinkish, marked or zoned with red, brown, and lilac. 
The Helmet-bird of Madagascar (Huryceros prevosti), a purplish- 
1 H. Gadow, Bronn’s Thier-Reich, Aves, Syst. Theil, 1893, p. 281. 
