376 THE WOODCHAT SHEIKR 



shrieking and fluttering that they intimate the position of their nest to the least 

 experienced observer. 



Although the cliief food of this bird consists of insects, it occasionally takes to larger 

 game, and has been known to destroy other birds, generally while in their nestling state. 

 It has sometimes been caught in fowlers' nets while striking at their decoy birds, and has 

 been detected in dragging yormg .and weakly pheasants through the bars of the cage in 

 which they had been confined. 



I can also add the testimony of personal observation to the bird-destroying capabilities 

 of this Shrike. A few months ago a lady kindly presented to me a box containing 

 several nestling birds, each pierced by a thorn, which she said had been killed and stuck 

 there by the Eed-backed Shrike. Thinking that there might possibly have been some 

 mistake about the slayer, I asked if it could be procured, and in a few more days another 

 box was sent, containing a fine Eed-backed Shrike and another impaled victim. Most of 

 the dead birds were headless, and in every case the thorn, instead of transfixing the body, 

 had been thrust between the skin and the muscles, but in so firm a manner that to draw 

 it out again required considerable force. The victims were very small, and too much 

 dilapidated for me to ascertain their species. 



In many parts of England, and indeed in most countries where it dwells, the Shrike 

 is termed " Nine-killer," from a notion that it always kills and impales nine creatures 

 before it begins its meal. The generic name enneoctonus bears the same signification, and 

 has been applied to the bird in allusion to this idea. Mr. Blyth says that wherever food 

 is very abundant, the Eed-backed Shrike only eats the soft abdomen of the impaled 

 insect, leaving the wings, limbs, and hard parts on the thorns. I have never observed 

 this practice, although I have seen very many Shrikes, their nests, eggs, and young. Still, 

 however, it may be the case with individual birds. 



The nest of this Shrike is situated in hedges or bushes, generally from five to ten feet 

 from the ground, the average elevation being about seven feet. It is large, rather clumsy, 

 and very easily seen through the foliage, being made of thick grass-stems, moss, and roots 

 on the exterior, and lined with very fine grasses and hair. In some places the nests are 

 quite common, and I have found three in a hedge surrounding a single field of no very 

 great extent. The eggs are generally five in number, and are rather variable in colouring, 

 their ground colour being always white, tinged in some cases with blue, in others 

 with green, and in a few specimens with rusty red. The spots with which they are 

 marked are quite as variable, sometimes being numerous, dark, and gathered into a ring 

 at the large end of the egg, and sometimes being only grey and light brown scattered 

 irregularly. In all cases, however, they are gathered upon the large end of the egg. 



In the adult male, the head, neck, and upper parts of the shoidders are pearly-grey, 

 with a black stripe across the base of the beak and running through the eye. The back 

 and wing-coverts are ruddy chestnut, fading into reddish-grey upon the upper tail-coverts. 

 The quill-feathers of the wings are black, edged with red upon their outer webs, and the 

 quill-feathers of the tail are white at the basal half, and the remainder of each feather is 

 black tipped with a very narrow line of white. The chin and under tail-coverts are 

 white, and the rest of the imder surface is pale rusty red. The strongly notched and 

 hooked beak is deep shining black. The female bird may at once be known by the 

 absence of the black streak across the eye, which in her case is replaced by a light 

 coloured stripe over the eye. The head and all the upper parts of the body are reddish- 

 brown, and the red edges of the wing-feathers are narrower than in the male. The under 

 side of the body is wholly greyish white, covered with very numerous transverse lines of 

 a darker hue. The young male is similarly coloured, but is distinguished by the back 

 being also covered with transverse bars of dark grey. The length of the adult bird is 

 between seven and eight inches. 



Another species of the same genus, the Woodchat Shrike, has occasionally but 

 very rarely been found in England. It is about the same size as the red-backed Shrike, 

 and possesses many of the same habits, but may readily be distinguished from that bird 

 by the difference of colouring. 



