26 



THE NATURE BOOK 



SHORT-HORNED OWL 

 ON NEST. 



This brings us 

 to the end of 

 the hrst gi-eat 

 tlivision in the 

 Linnean hst. 

 We come next 

 to the large 

 group of Spar- 

 row - 1 i k e or 

 Perching Birds, 

 which is headed 

 by the Shrikes or 

 Butcher birds — 

 veritable Hawks 

 on a small scale, 

 save that in 

 neither power of 

 flight nor vision are they so specially 

 adapted for raptorial 

 pursuits, their prey con- 

 sisting of comparatively 

 helpless and smaller 

 deer. We have only 

 two representatives of 

 -this family that are at 

 all common, the Red- 

 backed Shrike in sum- 

 mer and the Grey in 

 winter. The latter is 

 the larger bird, and far 

 less frequent. The male 

 of the former — not quite 

 so large as a Thrush — 

 is a lovely bird, with 

 semi - hawklike black 

 beak and forehead, grey hood and mantle. 

 black eye stripe, rufous back, and black 

 and white elongated tail, with pale grey 

 underparts with roseate tinge on breast. 

 These birds have a curious habit (which 

 has won for them the alternate name of 

 Butcher birds) of spitting spare food — 

 humble-bees, beetles, and even mice and 

 nestling small birds— upon the thorns of 

 Sloe or May bushes around their nests. 

 These larders sometimes betray the where- 

 ab(;uts of their somewhat rouglily con- 

 structed nursery. 



The Spotted Flycatcher, so fond of 

 yearly nesting near, if not upon, the 

 trees trained on the very walls of our 

 houses, and whose pretty habit of hawk- 

 ing for flies from a favoiirite perch within 

 sight of our windows renders him one of 

 the most observed of all our summer 

 visitors, is perhaps the last bird that has 



YOUNG TAWNY OWL. 



any regular method of feeding which 

 connects him with the birds of prey, 

 and that mereh' consists in the afore- 

 mentioned habit of insect hawking. From 

 him we pass on through the Thrushes, 

 Chats, Warblers, Tits, Wagtails, and 

 Pipits (all of which — except the Tits, who 

 make use of their feet — have a notch in 

 their upper mandible to assist in holding 

 and dissecting their food), to the hard 

 and cone-shaped beaked families of Larks, 

 Finches, Starlings, and Crows, which we 

 will sift later on. 



The third and last division of perching 

 birds — that is, those birds which, with 

 few exceptions, to be referred to here- 

 after, have the hind toe and claw well 

 developed for grasping the branches of 

 trees — consists of wide 

 gaped birds, including 

 the Swallows and Goat- 

 sucker or Nightjar, both 

 of which families take 

 their food on the wing 

 — the former by day, 

 the latter b}' night. 

 Next we come to the 

 climbers — ^^^'oodpeckers, 

 Creeper, Nuthatch, Wry- 

 neck, and Cuckoo, all 

 of which have the feet 

 especially adapted for 

 clinging to the bark of 

 trees. 



The fourth order in- 

 cludes the Pigeons and Game birds ; the 

 latter being practically gi"0und dwellers 

 (Wild Pheas- 

 ants frequent- 

 ly preferring 

 to roost 

 thereon), lead 

 us easily on 

 to the shore 

 birds and wa- 

 ders, five fam- 

 ilies of more 

 or less long- 

 legged birds 

 with curious- 

 ly specialised 

 beaks beauti- 

 fully adapted 

 to the nature 

 of their food 

 and their 



YOUNG LONG-HORNED OWL. 



