80 WILD LIFE IN CHINA. 



things go as he wishes, he soon has his quarry safely en- 

 sconced behind bars. 



Visitors to the Shanghai Museum will find some six or 

 eight varieties of the shrike family in a case in the N.W. 

 corner of the bird room. Both those already mentioned are 

 there, as also a pair of the bull-headed shrikes. (Lanhis 

 Bticephalus), marked on the back pretty much the same as 

 our own bird, but with a barred breast and belly covering. 

 The dingy shrike (L. Tephronotus) is also represented, and 

 the thick-billed shrike, (L. Magnirostris). Many of these 

 birds are migrants, and it is quite possible that in this neigh- 

 bourhood, as in others, there are occasional visitors which 

 surprise and delight the observer by their difference from 

 those with which he is best acquainted. In the spring of this 

 year, when on a visit to the Hills, I had several opportunities 

 of watching a shrike which was newto me. As birds had begun 

 to breedIhadnogun,andsowas possessed of no better weapon 

 than a binocular. That, however, was good enough to provide a 

 greatdeal of interesting occupation. Mynewfriend was smaller 

 than L. Schah, who is always with us winter and summer. 

 He was in fact about the size of an ordinary bulbul, but 

 otherwise was possessed of all the shrike characteristics. 

 His short wings and comparatively long tail were there, the 

 shrike flight was there, the love for the conspicuous position 

 was there, and the voice was there. The markings on the 

 back were not unlike those of our common friend, but those 

 on the under parts were of a lighter colour, a creamy white 

 with no dark lines visible through the glass. It is possible 

 that these birds were the variety which Swinhoe has described 

 under the name of L. Waldeni out of compliment to Lord 

 Walden, though the specimens discovered by him were in 

 western China, in Szechwan. I believe that Swinhoe thought 

 this bird and L. Magnirostris might be the same bird seen, the 

 one in winter, and the other in summer plumage. 



Somebody somewhere has called shrikes the "falcons of 

 the insect world," but one fails to see the appropriateness of 

 the phrase. The falcon is all grace and swiftness, the shrike 

 is rather clumsy than otherwise, and his flight has nothing of 

 that compelling rapidity which we associate with the cruiser 

 of the air. Both are birds of prey after their fashion, but the 

 falcon is a gentlemen, whilst the shrike is a — butcher. The 

 falcon swoops, the shrike descends. The falcon tears, and is 

 satisfied. The shrike kills and impales. Precisely why he 

 does this nobody knows. Insects thus kept do not improve 

 by the keeping, neither, one would imagine, would mice or 

 small birds. Some people suggest that the larder is an 

 attraction to flies, and a bait to other small creatures which 

 the butcher may make his prey, but all this is pure hypothesis. 



