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NESTING-SERIES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 147 
clump of sea-pink, or on the grassy ledge of a cliff. The eggs, four or 
five in number, are usually greenish-grey mottled with olive-brown, or 
occasionally with reddish. Two broods are reared in a season. 
Sutherlandshire, May. 
Presented by Colonel L. H. Irby & Captain S. G. Reid. 
No. 30. TREE-PIPIT. (Anthus trivialis.) 
This summer visitor arrives in the south of England early in April 
and is generally distributed throughout the more wooded portions of 
Great Britain during the summer months. Its reported occurrence in 
Ireland is doubtful. The male is generally seen perched on the 
_topmost branch of some tree, whence, at short intervals, he rises singing 
into the air, usually returning to his starting-point as the song ceases. 
The food consists of insects and small seeds. The nest is placed on the 
ground among grass and herbage and formed of moss and dry grass, 
lined with hair. From four to six eggs are laid and vary greatly in 
colour and markings. 
1. A nest with eggs. Perthshire, June. 
Presented by W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, Esq. 
2. A nest with young. Norfolk, June. 
Presented by Lord Walsingham. 
No. 31. RED-BACKED SHRIKE. (Lanius collurio.) 
This summer visitor arrives in the south of England early in May 
and is irregularly distributed throughout the wooded districts of 
England and Wales during the summer months. A few pairs occa- 
sionally breed in the south of Scotland, but from Ireland the species 
has only once been recorded as an accidental straggler. The food 
consists of small mammals, birds, lizards, bees and other insects, and 
from its curious habit of impaling its prey on thorns, this species and 
its allies are commonly known as “ Butcher-birds.” The “ larder” of 
the pair exhibited contained a young Yellow Hammer and a number of 
bees. The rather large nest of moss and roots, lined with dry grasses, 
hair, and wool, is placed in a thorn-bush or thick hedge five or six feet 
from the ground. The eggs are from four to six in number and vary 
greatly in colour and markings. 
Suffolk : nest with eggs, May ; nest with young, June. 
Presented by Duncan Parker, Esq. 
