10 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



The common Butcher-bird reaches us early in May, and usually leaves us 

 again in August or September, although a late straggler has been reported as 

 captured in November; it is therefore probable that only one brood is reared. I 

 have taken fresh eggs as late as the 8th June in Kent, but not later than the 

 2 Qth May in Norfolk ; in the latter county, however, I only met with the nest 

 twice ; it is therefore possible that later nests may occur ; the first week in June 

 appears from my dates to be the earliest laying-time in the north of Kent ; perhaps 

 a few nests may be occupied earlier. 



The nest of this species is most frequently placed in a hawthorn bush, or 

 hedge, but sometimes in the fork of a stunted tree, seldom more than five feet 

 from the ground, and frequently less : the number of eggs is usually five, but 

 sometimes six. Although there is a good deal of difference in the form and tinting 

 of the eggs, the general character of the markings is very characteristic in most 

 specimens laid by this bird : the ground-tint varies from greenish white to creamy 

 buff, and from the latter colour to salmon-pink ; the spots vary from olive to red- 

 brown, with underlying spots of bluish-ash ; sometimes the surface spots are wholly 

 wanting, the grey markings alone being in evidence ; the spots are usually almost 

 entirely confined to the broader half, rarely to the apical half; and, still more 

 rarely, irregularly scattered over the whole surface ; in most eggs they are largest, 

 and form an irregular zone, just above the middle. 



In Kent I found the pink variety of the egg extremely rare, indeed I only 

 once succeeded in taking a full clutch of this form by fighting my way edgeways 

 through a dense (six-foot thick) hawthorn hedge, the hen bird chucking away, and 

 making little frantic rushes at my fingers, as I gradually struggled nearer to the 

 prize. In some counties I am told that the pink form is the prevalent one ; it 

 certainly is the prettiest. 



I found the nests of the Red-backed Shrike most commonly in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Maidstone ; taking three in one morning from the forked branches of 

 stunted trees near the river : in such positions it was invariably more solidly built 

 than when placed in a bush or hedge : in character it is not unlike some nests 

 of the Greenfinch, but deeper; the outer walls formed of coarse grass-stalks and 

 moss, and the lining of fine bents, wool, and horsehair. 



As is well-known the name of Butcher-bird has been given to this species 

 owing to the habit which it has, in common with other Shrikes, of impaling its 

 prey upon thorns, in order, it is said, more readily to tear them to pieces : * per- 



* Considering that my bird swallowed five of the largest cockroaches I could find in succession, without 

 even dismembering them, I think this explanation can hardly be founded on fact : its swallowing capacity is 

 extraordinary, and one wonders, not only how it can get the food down its throat, but where it manages to 

 stow it all away. 



