WOODCHAT SHRIKE. 613 



The nest of the Woodchat Shrike is a very handsome structure^ loosely 

 put together, it is true, but with a rustic beauty about it almost peculiar 

 to the nests of this group of birds. It is usually placed in the fork of a 

 small tree — sometimes in the branches of an olive-tree, sometimes in an 

 evergreen oak, a cork-tree, or a tamarisk ; and Dixon has found it, twenty 

 feet from the ground, close to the stem of a tall poplar growing in the bed 

 of the river Roumnel at Constantine. The bird appears to take as little pre- 

 caution for the concealment of its nest as our well-known Missel-Thrush ; 

 and it is often very conspicuous. It is made chiefly of the stems and 

 flowers of the cudweed (much of it torn up by the roots), intermingled with 

 a little grass, coarse herbage, and sometimes masses of wool. The lining is 

 composed of the flowers of the plant, a few small dead leaves, and a 

 little vegetable down. The eggs of this bird are from four to six in 

 number. They are exceedingly variable in size and colour. They may 

 be separated into three very distinct types, connected with each other by 

 innumerable intermediate varieties. In the first the ground-colour is pale 

 green, spotted and dashed, chiefly at the larger end, with olive-brown, 

 and thickly marked with obscure underlying spots of pale violet-grey and 

 ashy brown. In the second type the ground-colour is very pale bufiish 

 white, sparingly spotted with dark greenish brown, and thickly marked 

 with underlying spots of grey. In the third type the ground-colour is 

 reddish buff, the surface spots are dark reddish brown, and the underlying 

 ones are pale lilac. In the greater number of the eggs of this bird the 

 markings are most numerous on the large end, and very often form a 

 zone. The spots, too, difiier considerably in size ; and, as a rule, the under- 

 lying ones are the largest. In some few instances the zone is round the 

 small end of the egg. They vary in length from I'OS to '86 inch, and in 

 breadth from '72 to "65 inch. 



Mr. C. A. Wright states {' Ibis,' 1864, p. 59) that in Malta this bird may 

 be seen during a great part of the year. " Perched on the uppermost twig 

 of some tree, its shining white breast forms one of the most conspicuous 

 objects in the ornithological landscape in April. On the first appearance 

 of danger it flies off to another and more distant tree, and, taking up a 

 similarly elevated position, scans the country round till the danger which 

 had excited its alarm has passed away. It builds here in i\Iay and June, 

 constructing a compact and well-formed nest in the fork of a carob or 

 almond tree. Its aflection for, and the courage it displays in the protection 

 of its young are remarkable. Wary as it is at other times, on these 

 occasions it seems to lose all fear ; uttering piercing cries, it will fly close 

 round the head of the intruder, and actually make a feint of dashing in 

 his face." Canon Tristram states that this Shrike breeds as plentifully 

 in the seething glens of the Dead Sea as on the bleak hills of Samaria, 

 and that he once found a nest of this bird near a village lined entirely with 



