92 FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



home (where they now enjoy the blessings of 

 British rule quite as fully as in Britain) well fat- 

 tened on juicy southern insects, dressed in their 

 courting dress, and ready for the serious business 

 of settling in life, choosing a mate, and rearing a 

 young family. Indeed, observers in Eastern Africa 

 have, noted them during the intermediate period, 

 sitting on the thorny shrubs, such as the Egyptian 

 acacia, which abound in that region, and already 

 adorned in their brilliant breeding plumage in anti- 

 cipation of their return to the*ir northern quarters. 



Some people say that the shrike even makes 

 two nests a year (as the swallow certainly does), 

 one in the north and one in Africa ; but this is 

 unlikely, and Dr. Sharpe, of the British Museum, 

 will have nothing to say to it. 



It is at the mating season especially that you have 

 a chance, if ever, of catching sight of the butcher- 

 bird himself, seated, all eagerness, on his look-out 

 tower ; and enjoying life with the calm begotten 

 of that fine old recipe a bad heart and a good 

 digestion. He sits and utters his amatory feelings 

 now and again in an abrupt little " chuck, chuck," 

 which is whipped out suddenly, with a jerk of the 

 head sideways as an appropriate accompaniment. 

 About the same time, too say the beginning of 

 June you stand the best chance of coming upon 

 one of the larders, all stocked with fresh meat ; for 

 later in the year, when the young are well fledged, 

 the shrike gives up its murderous practices a little, 

 and takes its young on the prowl for themselves in 

 orchards and gardens, in order to accustom them 



