NOTES ON THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 73 



seemed to have a nest in some thick bushes, and I had a very 

 close view of them both through my glasses. This female had 

 the crown, nape, and rump brownish grey, and the mouth warm 

 brown. I saw (inter alia) another female the same day, which 

 appeared to be plain brown above, and seemed to be an unusually 

 pale-coloured bird, but I did not get very close to it. From the 

 descriptions of Meyer, Jenyns, &c, and from the specimens men- 

 tioned, it is clear that plain reddish brown, with or without dark 

 crescentic lines, cannot be considered as the normal colouring of 

 the upper parts of the fully adult female Red-backed Shrike in 

 breeding plumage. And I would suggest the possibility of the 

 birds hitherto referred to as assuming the plumage of the male, 

 being merely old examples in the dress of the fully adult female. 



The fact that only a small number of female Red-backed 

 Shrikes have been found in what has been regarded as extra- 

 ordinarily bright plumage, is not in any degree repugnant to 

 this theory. The adult female Woodchat Shrike is sometimes 

 described as very similar to the male ; but more usually as being 

 generally duller in colour; and I have several times seen pairs 

 sitting together on a bush, the female of which was a much duller 

 bird than the male, and had the reddish chestnut of the head and 

 nape both duller and considerably paler. 



The only doubt which has arisen in my mind as to the pro- 

 priety of advancing the above suggestion, has its origin in the 

 fact that I have been unable to find a description of the under 

 parts of the birds said to be assuming the male dress. I cannot 

 find out whether these birds had the under parts marked with 

 crescentic dark marks (invariably the case in females in my 

 experience), or had them unmarked, and washed with pale red, 

 like ordinary adult males. If the latter is the case, of course my 

 little theory falls to the ground. 



In any case it seems to me that the subject of the plumage of 

 female Red-backed Shrikes is by no means thoroughly understood 

 at present, and it is chiefly with a wish to find out more about it 

 that these remarks have been penned. 



I have not seen it stated in any work on British Birds that 

 the nesting dress of the male of this species is different from 

 that of the female. Through the kindness of Mr. F. Coburn, of 

 Birmingham, I was able to satisfy myself that it is so. The 

 following is a description of two birds taken in a trap-cage in a 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XX. — FEB. 1896. Q 



