72 THE RED -BACKED SHRIKE. 



and spotted, especially at the thick end, with rust colour and 

 grey. The period of incubation, in which the male also takes 

 a share, is fourteen days. The young birds are like the mo- 

 ther, being on the upper part of the body and breast greenish 

 grey, marked with dark brown wavy lines, and on the belly 

 dirty white. If taken young, they are easy to rear, and should 

 be fed at first with ants' eggs, afterwards with dressed meat, 

 and finally, with bread soaked with milk. This last food they 

 always like if accustomed to it from the first. 



Mode of Taking. The Red-backed Shrike is easy to catch. 

 As soon as it arrives in May, the bushes, which are not many 

 where it usually perches, must be noticed, and limed twigs 

 set upon them : towards these it must be carefully driven. It 

 is generally taken in a quarter of an hour. Success will be most 

 certain if a beetle, grasshopper, or breeze-fly, be fastened near 

 the limed twigs, by horse hair, so that it can flutter about. 

 Care must be taken in removing the bird, as, like -all Shrikes, 

 it bites severely. 



Attractive Qualities. This bird occupies no mean place among 

 the songsters, as its song is not only pleasant,but unintermitting. 

 While singing it generally sits on a bush or the lower branches 

 of some tree near its nest. The song is compounded of the 

 songs of the Swallow, Goldfinch,~Whitethroat, Nightingale, Red- 

 breast, Wren, and Lark, as well as some harsh notes peculiar to 

 itself. It generally adopts the song of neighbouring birds, and 

 sometimes, through caprice, imitates that of some chance passer- 

 by. It is, however, unable to mimic the songs of the Chaffinch and 

 Yellow-hammer, perhaps, from some peculiarity in the construc- 

 tion of its throat. In the cage it adopts the notes of the birds 

 which hang near it, and is always cheerful and attractive. The 

 Red-backed Shrike is extremely expeditious in clearing a room 

 of flies, catching them when on the wing, and if needles be 

 stuck in a bough for him, spitting them with a very peculiar 

 gesture. It is not worth while teaching it to whistle airs; for 

 though it learns them quickly and well, it forgets them as soon, 

 in order to learn new ones. 



ADDITIONAL. Most English naturalists term this bird the 

 Red-backed Shrike ; in this country, where it arrives towards the 

 middle of May, departing in September, it is by far the best 

 known of the Shrikes. "It differs," says MUDIE, " from the rest 

 of our summer visitants, in being more numerous towards the 



