608 BRITISH BIRDS. 



bones of a bird or mouse^ the wing-cases of insects^ portions of bees and 

 waspSj will all tell their tale of this little plunderer^s voracity. As an 

 instance of this bird^s rapacity, may be mentioned Mr. Clark-Kennedy's 

 account in the ' Zoologist ' (1875, p. 4722), where he describes the thorn- 

 trees " decorated " with the bodies of the Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long-tailed 

 Tit, Robin, and Hedge- Accentor, once with a young Thrush, twice with 

 old Blackbirds, and once with young Partridges. It has also been known 

 to feed on young Pheasants. Sometimes the bird will be seen to poise 

 and hover above some bush or hedgerow, then pass onwards for a few 

 yards, and again repeat the fluttering movements, like a miniature Kestrel. 

 Its usual flight is a very drooping one, something like that of the 

 Green Woodpecker. The Red-backed Shrike does not pursue small birds 

 through the air ; its powers of wing are not suSicient to allow it to engage 

 in such chases with success ; but it drops suddenly down upon them, either 

 on the ground or when they are sitting on a twdg, killing them with its 

 powerful bill. 



The call-note of the Red-backed Shrike is a harsh chirp; and its 

 alarm-note, more rapidly and frequently repeated when its nest is ap- 

 proached, is a harsh chach. The song is very short and simple, merely 

 a few notes quickly repeated; but in confinement it is said to imitate 

 readily the songs of other birds. 



Soon after its arrival, usually by the second week in May, the Red- 

 backed Shrike searches out a nesting-site. The situation chosen is usually 

 in the tall hedgerows (the bird^s favourite retreat) or in the dense bushes 

 overgrown with brambles. It appears to show very little care for the con- 

 cealment of its nest, and will often build it in a bush or hedge by a much- 

 frequented roadway. The nest is a bulky one, large for the size of the 

 bird, and made of dry stems of plants, dead grass, rootlets, and moss, and 

 lined with horsehair and sometimes a little wool. The eggs are from four 

 to six in number, and are subject to such considerable variation that it 

 would almost be impossible to describe each in turn. For the sake of 

 convenience, they may be divided into four very distinct types. The first 

 is pale green in ground-colour, spotted and speckled with olive-brown and 

 with numerous underlying markings of ^dolet-grey ; the second is pale buft' 

 in ground-colour, spotted and blotched Avith pale olive-brown and with 

 underlying spots of pale brown and violet-grey ; the third is almost pure 

 white or creamy white in ground-colour, finely speckled and spotted with 

 rich reddish brown, and with larger underlying spots of violet-grey ; the 

 fourth has a salmon-coloured ground, spotted and blotched with brownish 

 red of different shades, with violet-grey underlying spots and sometimes 

 a few hair-like lines of deep brown. The character of the markings also 

 varies considerably. Some eggs are uniformly spotted over the entire 

 surface; most frequently the markings take the form of a zone, and 



