70 THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER 



and under-parts greyish-white to greyish-brown, and the bill and 

 legs are dark brown in colour. The female is slightly smaller than 

 the male. The nest is made in a hole in a tree or wall, or in the 

 fork of a tree, on beams in outhouses, in fruit trees nailed to walls, 

 or ledges of rock, and on stumps of trees. It is constructed of stems 

 of grass, horsehair, moss, lichens, feathers and wool. The eggs, 

 usually five in number, are pale green cr bluish-white, mottled with 



FIG. 46. THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 



rust-coloured streaks. The parent birds feed the young almost 

 incessantly with insects, sometimes bringing only one, and at other 

 times two, three, four, five, or even more flies of different sizes at 

 a visit, and have been known to bring food to the nestlings 537 times 

 during the course of a day. The Spotted Flycatcher departs from 

 the British shores about the middle of September. 



The RED-BACKED SHRIKE (Lanius cullurio or collaris), a Dentiros- 

 tral Insessorial bird of the family Lanidae (Butcher birds) and sub- 

 family Laninae, arrives in Great Britain at the end of April or be- 

 ginning of May, and takes flight therefrom in September. The male 

 has the head, neck and shoulders grey, a black mark crossing the 

 eye from the base of the bill ; back and wing coverts of a chestnut 

 hue, passing into reddish-grey at the tail; under-surafce of the chin, 

 white, and under-parts of body tinted reddish ; beak black. The 

 length of the bird is 6 to 7 in. The Red-backed Shrike frequents 

 coppices and hedgerows, flitting about, usually in pairs, the tops 

 of bushes or low trees, the male impaling insects on the thorns of 

 hedges to save the female trouble of capturing them. The nest is 

 built on the top of a hedge or in a low tree, and is of large size, 

 being composed of roots and grass, lined with hair. The eggs are 

 five, white, tinted with blue, green, and sometimes red. The food 



