244 REDBACKED-SHRIKE 



ninety have been applied to it in France and Savoy; 1 but not one 

 of these has any affinity to our own word " shrike," which probably is 

 derived from its shrieking or screeching call-note. William Turner 

 first applied this name to the family in 1544, but evidently had in his 

 mind the great grey-shrike, for he describes it as a bird with " A big 

 and gristly head, in colour wholly grey." 2 



The redbacked-shrike is most generally known locally as the 

 butcher-bird, owing to its habit of slaughtering small birds, mice, or 

 insects, and impaling them on thorns, ready for consumption when 

 required. I do not think that every pair of shrikes necessarily does 

 this, for the so-called " larders " are few and far between, and a search 

 for one, however careful, in the vicinity of the nest will often result in 

 failure. The victims which are transfixed in this fashion are many 

 and varied ; nestling birds especially young blue-tits humble-bees, 

 beetles, shrew-mice, and flies being the most numerous. 



The butcher-bird will pursue any of our smaller species, striking 

 at them from above, dashing them to earth, and then picking out their 

 brains. If wanted for his own nursery, he will proceed to pluck a 

 helpless young tit, and either spit it on a thorn at once for future use, 

 or carry away one portion and impale the rest. No wonder that he is 

 often mobbed by the smaller warblers, which, especially if they happen 

 to be whitethroats, will make the woods echo and re-echo with 

 righteous indignation. Even the gentle goldcrest is roused to deeds 

 of valour if a marauding butcher-bird approaches his daintily poised 

 nursery too closely. 



Mr. Patterson records an instance in which he saw a shrike 

 feasting on a fieldmouse, to which it added, by way of dessert, a 

 humble-bee or two and some beetles. 3 He also tells of a friend of his, 

 an enthusiastic bee-keeper, who obtained a nest of young shrikes and 

 hung them up in a cage, so that the parents might assist him in their 

 up-bringing. The old birds attended them most assiduously, bringing 



1 Newton, Dictionary of Birds, p. 84. ' Turner on Birds, p. 119. 



Wild Life in a Norfolk Estuary, p. 239. 



