240 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



attention. By their actions I supposed at once they were 

 attacking something, and soon observed them raiding a covey 

 of very small pheasants. Their hooked beaks soon told a 

 tale on the innocents, two of which they literally scalped 

 within a few feet of their mother who, either with the know- 

 ledge of my presence, or fear of the shrikes, cowered down, 

 and allowed them to do as they liked. I dared not venture 

 into the field where the slaughter was committed, for the 

 gamekeeper might have misinterpreted my intentions. The 

 shrikes left their prey and, perching upon the fence, began to 

 * insult ' me. However, I cleared them off with a few stones 

 and proceeded on my journey." 



A friend of mine living at Belton, who is an enthusiastic 

 bee-keeper, complained to me of the nuisance some red- 

 backed shrikes were to him. On one occasion he obtained a 

 nest of shrikes, and placing them in a cage, hung them up 

 in the fork of an apple tree with a view to securing the co- 

 operation of the parent birds in their upbringing, which 

 unaided he considered would have entailed far too much 

 labour. The old birds discovered their young, and attended 

 them most assiduously, constantly bringing lizards, mice, 

 wasps, butterflies, humble-bees, and some of his own ! The 

 floor of the cage, he assured me, was " strewn with muck of 

 that sort," many scarcely hurt, which crawled and fluttered 

 about the cage "like a menagerie" ! He was so impressed 

 with the need of so large and varied a supply that as soon as 

 they were sufficiently fledged to fly he let them go, afterwards 

 wishing he had not, for they set their affections so strongly 

 on his bees that, had he not " turned to and shot 'em," they 

 would have devastated his hives. 



TEMPERATURE AND FEATHERS 



St. John 1 appears to have noticed the effect of severe cold 

 on the plumage of the snowbunting: "Scarcely," he says, 

 " any two of the snowbun tings are quite alike. In the first 

 flocks that come there are only a few which are light-coloured, 

 but as the snow and frost increase the white birds became 

 more numerous." The same remarks apply to those I have 

 noticed in this neighbourhood. In sharp weather with much 



1 Sportsman and Naturalist's Tour in Sutherland ', p. 189. 



