THE LITTLE SHKIKE, S3 



Tlie female only differs from the male in being a little 

 smaller, the streak on the cheeks is shorter and narrower, and 

 there is generally only one wliite feather in the tail. 



Habitation. — Wild, it is a bird of passage, departing the first of 

 September, and returning the beginning of the following May *. It 

 generally frequents woods, orchards, and the hedges of fields. Always 

 perched on the tops of trees, it rarely descends into the lower bushes. It 

 feeds on insects. 



In the house, it must have a large wire cage like the larks, but with 

 three perches. It is not safe to let it mix with the other birds, as it would 

 soon kill them. 



Food. — In its wild state it feeds on beetles, cockchafers, crickets, 

 breeze-flies, and other insects ; when these fail, in consequence of a long 

 continuance of rain, it sometimes seizes young birds. 



In the house, if an old bird and lately taken, as soon as it is put in the 

 cage, some living insects, or a small bird just killed, must be thrown into 

 it. After some time, it will be satisfied with raw or dressed meat ; but it 

 is not always an easy task to get it to eat this food, for it will sometimes 

 take eight successive days, during which meal worms and other insects arc 

 added ; but as soon as it is accustomed to meat, it becomes so tame that 

 it will feed from the hand, and if the cage door be opened it will even 

 perch on the wrist to eat. Notwithstanding all my care, I have only been 

 able to preserve those two years, which have been taken wild, they have 

 all died of decline t ; those, on the contrary, which have been reared from 

 the nest, do not require so much attention, being contented with any kind 

 of common food. 



Breeding This bird generally builds in a tree on the edge of a wood, 



or in a garden, the nest being rather large -and irregular. The young arc 

 fed on beetles and grasshoppers. In order to rear them, they must be 

 taken from the nest when the tail begins to grow, and fed at first on ants' 

 eggs, and afterwards on white bread soaked in milk. 



Mode of Taking. — When the particular brambles and branches have 

 been observed, on which this bird watches for its prey, it is not difficult 

 to catch it; for notwithstanding its great quickness, it is not the less 

 imprudent, for it allows itself to be caught in the bird-lime in the most 

 stupid manner. 



Attractive Qualities. — This species has no particular song: the 

 female has none at all ; but the male imitates, with wonderful facility, 

 the songs of other birds, not only the detached parts, but the whole notes, 

 so correctly that it would not be diflScult to mistake it. Thus it imitates 

 exactly, and in order, all the variations of the song of the nightingale, 

 though more feebly, and like an echo, its notes not being so full and 

 clear : it imitates equally well the song of the lark, and similar birds. 



* It is not a native of Britain — Translator. 

 t Perhaps from not having been given now and then feathers, the fur and skin ol 

 animals, or even beetles, to cleanse the stomach. — Translator. 



