XXI. 



THE SHRIKE'S LARDER. 



YES ; there is no denying it this is a 

 shrike's larder ! The poor small beasts 

 impaled here must have been hung ;upon 

 thorns by that crudest of executioners. 

 The hoard belongs, I think, to a red-backed 

 shrike, whom I have seen more than once 

 flitting through the trees of this copse on 

 the hillside ; for the great grey shrike has 

 gone long since he comes to us only as a 

 winter visitor in the hardest seasons while 

 woodchats and smaller grey shrike hardly 

 occur at all in this out-of-the-way district. 

 Indeed, the red-backed bird is the only true- 

 born Briton of the entire family ; he alone 

 nests and rears his young here regularly. 

 1 60 



