RI:MV\< KKDSIIKIKI: 



REDBACKED-SHRIKE 

 [. L. TURNER] 



lu-iUnicketl-shriki's an- almost tin- last of our siiimntT migrants 

 to arrive, and the first to depart They are not numerous even in the 

 counties where they do breed, although more plentiful in Home yean 

 than in others; but on the whole it seems to me that they have 

 ilrcivas.-tl in numbers of late years; at any rate this is the case in 

 districts with which I am familiar throughout Kent, Sussex, and 

 Norfolk. They are by no means restricted in their choice of a habitat, 

 but may be looked for in woods and gardens, or amongst the thick 

 bushes dotted about the marsh-lands. In their private capacity they 

 are gentle and affectionate, but outside the domestic circle few birds 

 are more hated and feared, for they possess all the rapacity of birds of 

 prey, without a shadow of a claim to kinship with the nobler raptores. 



The two sexes differ in plumage as widely perhaps as do any of our 

 British species ; both are bold-looking, handsome birds, the male being 

 a fine admixture of reddish brown, black, and grey, with eyes keen as a 

 hawk. Mashing defiance from amidst a setting of black feathers, which 

 seems only to give them added brilliancy. The female is quite as 

 handsome in a more restrained fashion ; for the exquisite marking on 

 breast and flanks abundantly compensate for lack of colour. Occasion- 

 ally females have been observed differing very slightly in plumage from 

 the males, and curiously enough these abnormally coloured hens are 

 not necessarily old birds which have assumed the plumage of the 

 males, as is frequently the case with many gallinaceous birds ; for 

 on more than one occasion young females birds of the year have 

 been shot in plumage that more or less resembled that of their more 

 brilliantly coloured mates. 1 



This species rejoices in a great number of names upwards of 



1 Yarrell. vol. i. p. 212. 

 VOL. II. 2 I 



