66 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



The next bird that I procured (on the 21st of May) was a male 

 red-backed butcher bird, lanius col- 

 lurio. My neighbour, who shot it, 

 says that it might easily have escaped 

 his notice, had not the outcries and 

 chattering of the white-throats and 

 other small birds drawn his attention 

 to the bush where it was : its craw 

 was filled with the legs and wings of 

 beetles.* Flusher Shrike * 



shrill and peculiar whistle," which latter has given rise to its other common provincial epithet 

 willy wicket. There is an excellent account of this bird in Mr. Selby's British Ornithology, ail 

 indispensable work iu the library of every British naturalist, though unfortunately too much dis- 

 torted by deceptive and misleading theory. ED. 



* I am rather surprised that Mr. White was not familiar with this species, as it abounds in 

 many parts of Surrey, Kent, and Sussex, where it is commonly called " Jack Baker," and is well 

 known to all persons who take an interest in natural history. It arrives rather late in the season, 

 and both sexes, I think about the same time, which is contrary to the usual habit of migratory 

 birds ; some seasons they are much more plentiful than others. They are found generally about 

 tall and thick maple or hawthorn-hedges, wherein they breed ; and may be commonly seeu 

 perched on one of the highest twigs, or, like fly-catchers, upon the bare branch of some tree 

 growing out of the hedge, or sitting upon a post or paling, always in a conspicuous situation, 

 where their vision can extend over a considerable range, and whence they often dart after the 

 larger passing insects, or upon any small quadruped or bird that lucklessly conies within the 

 sphere of their downward leaping flight ; or they slowly hover along the hedges, often remaining 

 a long time suspended over a particular spot, and then, perhaps, advancing a few yards, and 

 again remaining 6xed in the air, and, when at length they do settle, not unfreqitently hovering 

 for some time around the branch on which they are about to alight. When sitting watchfully 

 upon a bough they often jerk the tail, another habit in accordance with the fly-catchers, to which 

 they are considerably allied. They subsist chiefly on beetles and humble-bees, and render 

 essential service in the spring by devouring great numbers of the large female wasps, destroying 

 what would otherwise become the founders of colonies of these troublesome and destructive in- 

 sects ; I have taken four or five from the stomach of a single bird. Chaffers they seize with the 

 bill, and then, flying to a perch, transfer them to the foot, holding them up in one foot like a parrot 

 while they pick them to pieces. When satiated,' they eat only the abdomen, and impale the still 

 living body upon a thorn, a habit common to all the genus. They prey also occasionally on 

 small birds, lizards, mice, and shrews, and I have known several instances of their being taken 

 in the nets of bird-catchers, when endeavouring to seize upon the brace-birds- They do not (like 

 the L- excubitor) attack a bird upon the wing, but pounce down upon those which happen to be 

 on the ground, or upon a branch beneath, in the latter case bearing down their prey to the 

 ground, seizing it with both bill and claws, and expanding over it the wings and tail in precisely 

 the manner of a hawk, then dispatching it not by strangulation, but by biting and compress- 

 ing the head, and picking a hole in the skull. It is then carried in the beak to the horizontal 

 bough of a tree, where the shrike places one foot upon its victim, and never leaves it, I believe, 

 when undisturbed, till it is all finished. This species is almost sure to betray the site of its 

 nest by its perpetual clamour, constantly reiterating the sound chack when any one is near the 

 place, so that in populous neighbourhoods very few escape the ken of bird's-nesting boys. The 

 young will attack and kill another bird even before they have cast their first feathers ; but are rather 

 social among themselves, and with their parents, and in July and August are very apt to excite 

 attention by the clatter they make on the hedges, which may be heard at a considerable distance ; 

 they then subsist almost wholly upon winged grasshoppers, which are captured in the manner 

 of a fly-catcher, with a loud snap of the bill. They have no natural song, save a few unmusical 

 chirps, but are said occasionally to imitate the notes of other birds, which in confinement they 

 do with facility. 



The redbacked shrike is a double moulting bird: the young are at first closely barred upon the 

 upper parts with a darker colour, each feather exhibiting two transverse bars. This plumage is 



