56 Wood side. 



branch, singing quite merrily. Suddenly a heavy body is 

 projected against it, which knocks it into the grass at the 

 foot of the hedge. Don't go near it. Do you not hear it 

 screaming? Wait a moment. The bird appears to rise 

 again, but it is bringing up something with it. Not the 

 bird, though, for the object being carried up is the hedge- 

 sparrow, quite dead now, whilst the bird that flies up to the 

 very branch so recently occupied by the sparrow is the 



FIG. 16. BED-BACKED SHEIKE (Lanius collurio). 



dreaded butcher-bird. He holds his victim there for a few 

 moments, and then is off to that bramble-bush. Watch him 

 as he draws the hedge-sparrow up and down over the 

 bramble thorns, until the victim is firmly fixed thereon. 

 Now he is off. Wait a moment before you go too near. 

 "We were right to wait, you see, for he is returning and 

 bringing his mate with him. And now the two indulge 

 in a thorough orgy ; up and down, round and round, they 

 flutter and scream now nearer, then farther away, now 



