534 



The Living Animals of the World 



Five species are commonly included in the list of British birds, although only two 

 occur with any frequency : of these, the Great Grey Shrike visits Great Britain every winter ; 

 whilst the smaller Red-backed Shrike is an annual summer visitor to those islands, breeding, 

 however, only in England, occurring but occasionally in Scotland, and being almost unknown in 

 Ireland, where only one specimen has ever been recorded. 



The Red-backed Shrike, writes Dr. Sharpe, "reminds us of a fly-catcher in the way in which 

 [it] captures its food, for it has undoubtedly favourite perches, on which it sits, and to which 

 it returns after the capture of an insect. It is frequently to be seen on telegraph-wires, 

 where it keeps a sharp look-out in every direction, and a favourite resort is a field of freshly 

 cut grass. It also captures a good many mice and small birds, not pursuing them in the open 

 like birds of prey, but dropping down on them suddenly. In the British Museum is a very 

 good specimen of the larder of a red-backed shrike, taken with the nest of the bird by Lord 

 Walsingham in Norfolk, and showing the way in which the shrike spits insects and birds 



on thorns ; and the species has been known . 

 to hang up birds even bigger than itself, such 

 as blackbirds and thrushes, as well as tits of 

 several kinds, robins, and hedge-sparrows, while it 

 will also occasionally seize young partridges and 

 pheasants." 



Though undeniably unmusical, the red-backed 

 shrike is nevertheless able to imitate with 

 considerable success the notes of other small 

 birds, decoying them by this means within 

 striking distance — an accomplishment shared also 

 by other members of the Shrike Family. The 

 present sjiecies is attractively clothed in a 

 plumage varied with black, grey, rufous, and 

 chestnut-brown, the last being the predomi- 

 nating hue of the upper-parts ; hence the name 

 Red-backed Shrike. 



The habits of its congener, the Great Grey 

 Shrike, are precisely similar. A caged specimen 

 which had become very tame would take food 

 from its captor's hands. When a bird was 

 given it, the skull was invariably broken at once, 

 after which, holding the body in its claws, the 

 shrike would i)roceed to tear it in jiieces after the 

 fashion of a hawk. Sometimes, instead, the carcase 

 would be forced through the bars of the cage — 

 in lieu of thorns — and then pulled in pieces. 



Very different in appearance from the members of the Shrike Family are a group of 

 possibly allied forms known as Wa.x-wings. Of pleasing but sober coloration, they are 

 remarkable for certain curious ajipendages to the inner quill-feathers, of a bright sealing-wax 

 red colour, from wliicii they derive their name : similar wax-like appendages occur also, some- 

 times, on the tail-feathers. 



Breeding in the Arctic Circle, wax-wings occur in both the Old and New Worlds, though 

 some species peculiar to the latter region lack the wax-like appendages characteristic of the 

 majority of the species. These birds are erratic in their movements, and large bands occasionally 

 visit the British Islands during the autumn and winter, the eastern counties being usually the 

 most favoured spots; but on the occasion of one of these immigrations, in the winter of 1872, 

 many were seen in the neighbourhood of the North of London. During the summer they feed 

 on insects, but in autumn and winter on berries and fruit. At this time they become very fat 



ItHUD-WARBLEll 

 A coranion British bird 



arriving in April, and leaving 

 September, 



