SHRIKES — SPOTTED FLYCATCHER 



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This shrike does not appear in central Europe before the end of April or May, 

 and retires to its winter- quarters as early as August or, at the latest, the 

 beginning of September. It is the smallest but one of the European shrikes, being 

 only 7 A inches in length, and is also the handsomest. The male has a greyish 



RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 



blue head, a chestnut back marked 

 off from the black and white tail 

 by an area of grey, and he has a 

 white chin and buff breast. The 

 central tail-feathers are black, the others white at 

 their bases and tips, and the outer pair nearly all 

 white. The females and young have a pale instead 

 of a black stripe above the eye, and are brownish 

 instead of chestnut and of a much more sombre grey. 

 This shrike is almost as good a vocalist as the wood- 

 chat, and certainly a better mimic. 



Spotted The flycatchers are not unlike the shrikes in the way they capture 



Flycatcher, their prey, and show a resemblance to the thrushes in the mottled 



plumage of the young. The spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa griseola), which is the 



central European representative of a mainly African genus, resorts to the 



outskirts of woods and spinneys, to trees and bushes near ponds and other water, 



