136 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



their winter quarters in the south. Perhaps this 

 Shrike is most interesting when the young are out 

 of the nest, flitting about the hedges and clamour- 

 ing for food, which both parents continue to pro- 

 vide long after their offspring are able to fly well. 

 The nest, made in May or early June, is a re- 

 markably pretty one, built in the hedge towards 

 the top, and made of grass stems, stalks of flowers 

 and herbs, and lined plentifully with moss, wool, 

 and hair. The five or six eggs are usually pale 

 green in ground colour, spotted and freckled with 

 olive-brown and grey. The old birds are most 

 assiduous in providing food for their offspring ; 

 and we frequently stand and watch them feeding 

 each youngster in turn at intervals of a minute or 

 so. Later on, in August, the young birds them- 

 selves may be seen catching their own prey. The 

 favourite food of the Red-backed Shrike, in this 

 part of Devon, is the common grasshopper, an 

 insect specially abundant in the fields and hedge- 

 rows. The patient Shrike sits and waits and 

 watches upon some twig, occasionally flitting out 

 to secure an insect flying by, but more often 

 dropping down into the herbage to seize a grass- 

 hopper. The bird rarely fails in its attempt, 



