RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 577 



is sure to be found, darting here and there, now poising itself be- 

 fore a flower, and probing its recesses with the long, slender 

 tongue, and now shooting for hundreds of feet into the air, and 

 then descending diagonally, as if shot from a gun, toward the 

 flower from which it started, and balancing itself before its blue 

 petals as if it had not moved. 



The nest of this bird is proportionately small, and is beautifully 

 made of vegetable fibres, such as the silk-cotton of the bombax, 

 and, when the eggs are laid, is only just large enough to contain 

 them and to retain the body of the mother bird. When, how- 

 ever, the young are hatched, the parents add to the walls of the 

 nest, which, by degrees, alters its shape . completely. At first it 

 very much resembles an immature acorn-cup, but when the young 

 are ready for flight it is deep like an ordinary coffee-cup. This 

 pretty little bird is common in Jamaica. 



In the hedgerows of our own country may often be found a 

 nest which is not only pretty in itself, but remarkable for its ac- 

 cessories. This is the home of the Eed-backed Shrike {Unneoc- 

 tonus collurio). 



The predatory habits of the Shrikes are well known, and one 

 species, the Great Gray Shrike {Lanius excubitor), was formerly 

 used as a falcon for the purpose of catching winged game. True, 

 the bird was not considered as a veritable hawk, and in the old 

 days of sumptuary laws, when each degree of rank had its own 

 particular species of hawk, this was a fact of some significance, 

 showing that those who thus employed the Shrike were not of 

 gentle blood. 



The popular notion of the time supplied another reason why 

 the Shrike was looked upon with disdain as a bird-catcher. It 

 was supposed to use guile in securing its prey, instead of openly 

 conquering in fair chase. "Sometimes," writes an old sporting 

 author, " upon certain birds she doth use to prey, whome she doth 

 entrappe and deceive by flight, for this is her desire. She will 

 stand at pearch upon some tree or poste, and there make an ex- 

 ceeding lamentable crye and exclamation, such as birds are wonte 

 to do, being wronged or in hazard of mischiefe, and all to make 

 other fowles believe and thinke that she is very much distressed 

 and stands in need of ayde ; whereupon the credulous sellie birds 

 do flocke together presently at her call and voice, at what time if 

 any happen to approach neare her she out of hand ceazeth on 



Oo 



