RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 
clutch, however, consists of similar eggs ; but the next nest, perhaps within the distance of half a mile or less, 
may be of one of the other varieties and totally different. I am of opinion I have come across most of the 
pink shade of egg in Sussex, while the yellow varieties were more commonly met with m Middlesex. In 
Norfolk the onlv nest I ever examined contained pink eggs thickly spotted with red-brown. 
A young bird that I captured shortly after leaving the nest soon became remarkably tame in confinement. 
It fed readily on raw meat, but greatly preferred live insects, such as bluebottle flies, beetles, caterpillars, and 
butterflies or moths. On one occasion I captured an immense dragonfly ; this was partially crippled, and 
then placed on the table in front of his cage. “ Bitters” (on account of his habit of jerking Ins tail, lie had 
been christened “ Cock-tail Bitters ”) was out in a moment, and, after setting at the fly like a miniature 
gamecock for a few seconds, he commenced the attack. Striking it several blows with Ins beak, he next 
seized it at the back of the head with one claw and bit off the head, which he consumed at once with evident 
relish. The disposal of the body and wings was a somewhat laborious undertaking ; but be resolutely refused 
to quit the spot till he had bolted every vestige of his vanquished foe. The description of beetle known to 
country people as the “ devil’s coacli-liorse ” always gave him a severe tussle before it succumbed. At times 
the insect would pin his assailant with his formidable nippers by the head, when the two would roll over 
one another in a desperate rough-and-tumble fight, poor Bitters shrieking with rage or pain. These contests 
seldom lasted more than a minute or two, and Bitters was always good for two or three beetles at a meal. Ilis 
untimely end was brought about by overfeeding, not sufficient time having been allowed him to throw up 
the pellets* of a couple of peacock butterflies before offering him some caterpillars of the cabbage-butterfly. 
Unable to resist these luscious morsels, the unfortunate bird swallowed them and expired from the effects. 
As I had so far trained him that he would sit on my finger, and dart at and capture flies and other insects, 
returning at once to his perch, he would, I imagine, in time have become a most amusing pet. 
* These birds throw up the indigestible portions of their food in pellets, after the manner of Owls. 
