NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



55 



from Mr. Robert Embleton, of Chathill, Northumberland, a most 

 valuable specimen of the nest of the marine stickleback, which 

 has been drawn by Mr. Delamotte. The late Mr. Jonathan 

 ('ouch thus describes a stickleback's nest which came under his 

 own observation : " The situation selected by the fish was the 

 loose end of a rope, from which the strands hung at about a yard 

 from the surface, over a depth of four or five fathoms, and 

 to which the material could only have been brought, of course, 

 in the mouth of the fish from the distance of about thirty 

 feet. They were formed of the usual aggregation of the finer 

 sorts of green and red ore-weed ; but they were so matted 

 together in the hollow formed by the untwisted strands of 

 the rope, that the mass constituted an oblong ball of nearly 

 the sixe of the fist, in which had been deposited the scattered 

 assemblages of spawn, and which was bound into shape with 

 the thread of animal substance, which was passed through 

 and through in various directions, while the rope itself formed 

 an outside covering to the whole." The threads formed by the 

 stickleback resemble very much an indiarubber band, only 

 they are of a white colour. No human being knows how 

 these threads are formed by this interesting nest-building fish. 



BUTCHER-BIRD, p. 63. The butcher-bird, or shrike, arrives at 

 the end of April, and remains to the end of August. It preys 

 upon beetles, birds, and especially willow-wrens and chiff-chaffs, 

 both young and old, and any young birds from nests. The young 

 of the butcher-bird never comes to its full plumage till it arrives 

 the following season. The young are streaky grey. This bird 

 is very common close round London and all over England ; it 

 has a quick jerking call, " lack, lack." He is a wonderful 

 plucky bird, and will take the "brace birds" 1 off the "flur 

 slicks " of the bird-catchers. They are easy to keep ; they feed 

 on brains of birds, always attacking the bird's skull first ; they 

 become wonderfully tame, but are only kept for the sake of 

 curiosity. The great grey shrike comes in winter from Norway 

 and Sweden ; it arrives in October and returns in the spring. 

 It is rare ; Mr. Davy never had above two in one season. 

 When " hard pushed " the shrike will take almost any bird. 

 It is a wonderful punisher, and has great power in its beak. 

 The bird generally fixes its dinner on a thorn to hold it while 

 he picks at it. When in a cage he fixes his prey between 

 the bars. 



" The red-backed shrike (L. collur-io) is a somewhat local bird, 

 and visits us in summer ; it is more common in the east than 



' See next page. 



