THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 61 



small birds, are detailed by several ornithologists 

 worthy of credit,* while it is known that it is 

 frequently taken by the London bird catchers 

 when striking at the decoy birds in the clap net. 

 The nest is generally placed in a bush or hedge, 

 and has not yet been recorded to be built on 

 trees, as that of the gray shrike is occasionally ; 

 it is comparatively a large structure, coarsely but 

 firmly built with weak twigs, roots, &c. as a 

 base work, and lined with moss, grass, hair, or 

 wool. The eggs seem somewhat variable ; those 

 in our possession are milk-white, spotted with 

 rufous, and they are described as bluish white, 

 spotted and zoned with wood brown and ash gray, 

 also greenish white, with dark spots. 



The head, back of the neck, and rump, are ash 

 gray ; the centre of the back and wing coverts 

 reddish brown ; space between the eye and the 

 bill, surrounding the eyes and auriculars, deep 

 black ; the under parts, when newly killed, pale 

 peach-blossom red, inclining to pure white on 

 the throat, and varying in intensity in different 

 species ; quills are wood brown ; the tail has the 

 four centre feathers entirely black, those on the 

 sides white at the base, that colour forming a bar 

 across, and limiting the black of the tips gradu- 

 ally towards the exterior feathers ; shafts black 

 for their whole length ; on the last feather the 

 outer web is white entirely, and the black assumes 

 the form of an irregular spot at the tip. The 



* Hewitson, Knapp, Blytb. 



