THE TOOTH-BILLED PERCHERS. 258 



" I have seen," says Mr. "Wood, " one of these birds ongaged 



in the pursuit of flies in a garden at Headington. It perched on 



a balustrade close to a window from which 



several persons were watching it, and 



continued its evolutions perfectly undis- 

 turbed by their proximity. On another 



occasion I was keeping watch in a gig 



in Nuneham Park, and to pass away the 



time, amused myself with cutting off the 



heads of the white clover with the lash. 



While so engaged, a spotted flycatcher 



came and took up its station on a bough gj,„tt,a mj«Mh«T. 



close by the gig, from which it made 



excursions among the flies and other insects that were driven from 

 the grass and flowers by the whip." 



It is a summer visitor to England, arriving in May and de- 

 parting about the beginning of October. The note of this bird is 

 a weak chirp, and even that is not often heard. The nest is built 

 usually in holes of trees or walls, or sometimes between a branch 

 of a wall-fruit tree and the wall itself. The eggs are five in num- 

 ber, spotted with reddish brown on a grey ground. The length 

 of the bird is about five inches. 



The Great Grey Shrike feeds upon mice, birds, frogs, 

 and other small animals. After pouncing upon its prey, the 

 Shrike, by a few blows on the head from its powerful bill, destroys 

 it. The unfortunate animal is then carried to the nearest hedge, 

 impaled on a thorn, and the Shrike devours it at his leisure. 

 Large insects are treated in the same manner. The object of this 

 impalement is apparently that the creatures thus suspended should 

 become tender or "high," so that the modern epicure, who hangs 

 up his venison until no one with an unsophisticated taste would 

 venture to touch it, has but borrowed his custom from the Shrike. 

 The bird, after hanging a lizard or a mouse in this fashion, gene- 

 rally goes off and fetches another, always preferring ttf eat those 

 which have remained longest on the thorn^ and which are as it 

 wer ^ cooked in the sun 

 ''•2 



