BUTCHER-BIRD 
307 
of them ; but in the bush it frequents lightly timbered 
country, and especially poor sandy lands on which 
bracken flourishes and where the timber is chiefly 
bull-oak, honeysuckle, or more or less stunted gums. 
Once a pair of Butcher-birds have taken up their 
abode in such a spot, you will find them there year 
after year. 
Places which occur to me as regular homes of the 
Butcher-bird are the beginning of the bush on the 
Swan Bay Road, a mile or two beyond the Wallington, 
and the ferny country west of Gnarwarre. It does 
not penetrate into the messmate bush, but is well dis- 
tributed elsewhere ; though it is nowhere a common 
bird, and I daresay if I were to take a bird-lover out 
with the intention of showing him a Butcher-bird, I 
might go all day without coming across one. 
The food of the Butcher-bird is chiefly insects 
and perhaps an occasional lizard. I have not per- 
sonally known an instance of its taking canaries out 
of cages ; but I do not doubt that such have occurred, 
for the bird has much in it of the true Shrikes (you 
have but to look at the hard, hooked bill to see that), 
and has been known to impale its victims upon thorns 
as they do. 
This species has, I believe, but one brood in the 
year, and the eggs, three or four in number, are laid 
almost invariably in the third week in September, in 
a nest which is bowl-shaped, but smaller and shallower 
than the Magpie's, though neatly lined with rootlets 
and with a well-formed depression. It is built never 
