WOODCHAT SHRIKE. 613 
The nest of the Woodchat Shrike is a very handsome structure, loosely 
put together, it is true, but with a rustic beauty about it almost peculiar 
_ to the nests of this group of birds. It is usually placed in the fork of a 
small tree—sometimes in the branches of an olive-tree, sometimes in an 
evergreen oak, a cork-tree, or a tamarisk; and Dixon has found it, twenty 
feet from the ground, close to the stem of a tall poplar growing in the bed 
of the river Roumnel at Constantine. The bird appears to take as little pre- 
caution for the concealment of its nest as our well-known Missel-Thrush ; 
and it is often very conspicuous. It is made chiefly of the stems and 
flowers of the cudweed (much of it torn up by the roots), intermingled with 
a little grass, coarse herbage, and sometimes masses of wool. The lining is 
composed of the flowers of the plant, a few small dead leaves, and a 
little vegetable down. The eggs of this bird are from four to six in 
number, They are exceedingly variable in size and colour. They may 
be separated into three very distinct types, connected with each other by 
innumerable intermediate varieties. In the first the ground-colour is pale 
green, spotted and dashed, chiefly at the larger end, with olive-brown, 
and thickly marked with obscure underlying spots of pale violet-grey and 
ashy brown. In the second type the ground-colour is very pale buffish 
white, sparingly spotted with dark greenish brown, and thickly marked 
with underlying spots of grey. In the third type the ground-colour is 
reddish buff, the surface spots are dark reddish brown, and the underlying 
ones are pale lilac. In the greater number of the eggs of this bird the 
markings are most numerous on the large end, and very often form a 
zone. ‘The spots, too, differ considerably in size ; and, as a rule, the under- 
lying ones are the largest. In some few instances the zone is round the 
small end of the egg. They vary in length from 1-05 to ‘86 inch, and in 
breadth from *72 to 65 inch. 
Mr. C. A. Wright states (‘Ibis,’ 1864, p.59) that in Malta this bird may 
be seen during a great part of the year. ‘ 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 the first appearance 
of danger it flies off to another and more distant tree, and, taking up a 
similarly elevated position, scans the country round till the danger which 
had excited its alarm has passed away. It builds here in May and June, 
constructing a compact and well-formed nest in the fork of a carob or 
almond tree. Its affection for, and the courage it displays in the protection 
of, its young are remarkable. Wary as it is at other times, on these 
occasions it seems to lose all fear; uttering piercing cries, it will fly close 
round the head of the intruder, and actually make a feint of dashing in 
his face.” Canon Tristram states that this Shrike breeds as plentifully 
in the seething glens of the Dead Sea as on the bleak hills of Samaria, 
and that he once found a nest of this bird near a village lined entirely with 
