34 THE WOODCHAT. 



This -o-onderful power of imitation cannot fail to please amateurs, and 

 make them wish to possess this interesting bird. I have observed that it 

 likes best to repeat the call of the quail. One of this species which I had 

 among my collection, always stopped its song, however lively, when it 

 heard that of the quail, for the purpose of imitating it ; the latter, before 

 it was accustomed to this, became very jealous, and as soon as it heard it, 

 ran about in every direction, furiously endeavouring to fight its fancied 

 rival. 



THE WOODCHAT. 



Lanius erythrocephalus. Lan. Collurio, rufus, et pomeranus, Linn^os j La Pie 

 Grieche rousse, Buffon ; Der rothkopfige Wiirger, Bechstein. 



This is smaller and more delicate than the former species, 

 being only seven inches long, of which the tail measures three 

 and a half ; the folding wings cover one third ; the beak is 

 eight lines in length, and black ; the iris greyish yellow ; the 

 shanks bluish black ; the forehead black, from the base of 

 which a band of the same colour extends over the eyes. The 

 tail feathers are also black, but the outer ones only so to the 

 middle, the rest being white. 



The female only diffei-s from the male in its colour being 

 less brilliant. 



Habitation. — When wild it is a bird of passage, arriving at the end or 

 April, and departing about the middle of September*. It inhabits moun- 

 tains, forests, and wooded plains, but prefers enclosed pastures where horses 

 are kept day and night. 



In confinement it requires the same treatment as the preceding. 



Food. — In its ■wild state it prefers beetles, the dung of cows and horses, 

 maybugs, grasshoppers, breeze-flies, and other insects ; it often also darts 

 upon lizards and young quails. 



In a state of confinement it is fed like the preceding ; but being more 

 delicate it is better to rear it from the nest, feeding it on raw meat. If 

 an old bird be taken, it is impossible to preserve it unless it be constantly 

 fed on live insects. 



Breeding. — The woodchat commonly bnilds its nest on the thick and 

 bushy branches of large trees, and makes it of small sticks, moss, hogs* 

 bristles, wool and fur. The female breeds twice, laying each time six 

 reddish-white eggs, marked particularly at the large end with distinct red 

 spots, mixed with pale ones of a bluish grey. The young ones are hatched 

 in fifteen days ; their colour, before the first moulting, is on the upper 

 part, dirty Avhite, spotted with grey ; the under part is also dirty white, 



» It is doubtful as a native of Britain.— Translator. 



