48 THE BIEDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 



attractive to their fellows. With insects I think the 

 contrary is the case ; the bird has no need to impale a 

 moth or a humble-bee in order to devour it ; and it is 

 my belief that this is practised as a lure to entice small 

 birds. This idea is strengthened by the careful man- 

 ner in which the insect is generally transfixed. I was 

 one day rambling on the skirts of a wood which divides 

 Thoresby Park from the forest, where, amongst the 

 heath and fern surrounding it, many young thorn trees 

 were growing, the hedge inclosing the wood being a 

 favourite haunt of the red-backed shrike. Something 

 on one of these thorn-bushes caught my eye, and on 

 going up I found it was a large egger moth impaled 

 on a strong thorn. The thorn projected at least half an 

 inch through the body of the moth, and so little was it 

 injured that it was difficult to understand how the bird 

 placed it there. But the bush stood in such a secluded 

 spot, surrounded by ferns as high as my breast, and at a 

 distance from any path, that I could come to no other 

 conclusion than that it was the work of the shrike. If 

 it had not been intended as a decoy, such a bonne 

 bouche would hardly have remained undevoured by the 

 shrike, for the body was quite dry, and it had evidently 

 been there some days. However, the specimen was 

 such a fine one, and so artistically " pinned," that I cut 

 off the branch as it was, and carried it home. 



A much rarer member of this family is the Woodchat 

 Shrike (L. rufus), of which I am glad to record the oc- 

 currence, one having been killed in the forest near the 

 entrance to Thoresby Park called the Buckgates, in 

 May, 1859, by Mr. H. Wells. It is abundant on the 

 Continent, and the late Mr. Hay described it as breeding 

 in the Netherlands. Its eggs have the same zone of 



