116 ON PRODUCING SPECIMENS OF BRITISH LAND BIRDS 



forward, and seeing- through its widely open mouth. A peculiar muscle, 

 however, would be necessary to enable it to do this, which dissection 

 proves not to exist ; the eye is indeed sufficiently large and prominent 

 to render such a power quite unnecessary. 



The ash-coloured shrike (Lanius excubitor) is occasionally shot in 

 this neighbourhood during the winter ; but being exceedingly rare, I am 

 unable to say any thing concerning it. The wood-flusher {Collurio 

 rufus), also, I have never yet observed alive ; but have seen two speci- 

 mens of it, said to have been killed in Britain. The common flusher 

 ( C. vulgaris) is in these parts very abundant, and should be sought for 

 on its first appearance in the spring, as the beautiful lilac gloss upon 

 the breast of the male becomes in a few weeks much obscured. Several 

 of our native birds are adorned with these lovely glosses, of various 

 intermediate shades between pink and purplish lilac, when their plumage 

 is in full perfection ; a delicate pink may be observed on the breast of a 

 cock whitethroat during the spring, and a trace of it also on some babil- 

 lards ; in the bearded tit ( Calamophilus biarrnicus, Leach), and bottle 

 tit, these tintings are more permanent. Similar glosses may likewise 

 be observed on the wings of certain butterflies ; a full rose colour, for 

 example, on the hinder wings of some male specimens of Colias edusa ; 

 also the rich and splendid purple which plays on the emperor's 

 wings (Apatura Iris). Two chief requisites should be present to form 

 a fine specimen of the maleflusher shrike, some being much handsomer 

 than others ; the forehead should be white, or very nearly so, and the 

 above-named lilac gloss tolerably conspicuous. A female should also be 

 procured in the spring, and a specimen of the young in its first feathers, 

 which should be sought for about the latter end of July, or beginning 

 of August, not later, as they soon begin to moult. In their nestling 

 feathers these birds are very handsome, the upper parts being beauti- 

 fully barred with black ; I have not Bewick's work now by me, but I 

 think that author represents one in this state of plumage for the female 

 wood-chat, another and very different species. The young flushers are 

 easy to procure, as they follow their parents until they leave the country, 

 and always indicate their presence by their perpetual clamour : which, 

 though it may be heard at a considerable distance, generally appears as 

 if close by, and leads one to imagine that in the nearest bush a brood of 

 nestlings are about to fly ; though accustomed to the sound, I have thus 

 been often deceived. I know of no bird whatever, the eggs of which 

 vary so much in shape, markings, colour, and size, as those of this 

 shrike ; they are usually somewhat similar in the same nest, but I hardly 



