5o 
British Birds. 
THE RED-BACKED 
SHRIKE. 
( Lanins collurio.) 
This is the common Butcher-bird of our islands, visiting 
us regularly in summer, and nesting over the greater part of 
England, but becoming rarer towards the north, and not 
breeding in Scotland ; it has only once been recorded from 
Ireland. It is generally distributed over Europe as far east as Central Asia, and it 
winters along the Persian Gulf and in East and South Africa. 
Although a much smaller bird than the three Grey Shrikes, the present species 
has much the same habits as its larger relatives, and impales insects and mice and 
small birds on the thorns which constitute its store-house. It is fond of frequenting 
dells and over-grown gravel pits, or commons where there are plenty of scattered 
clumps of bushes, and it may often be seen on the telegraph-wires, swooping down 
from this perch on the insects which fly below. The nest is an untidy structure of 
moss and roots, lined with grass and hair. The eggs are from four to six in number, 
of two kinds, a reddish and a white type, with rufous spots in the one and olive or 
greenish-brown spots in the latter. 
The Red-backed Shrike is distinguished by its blue-grey head and chestnut back, 
and pinkish under-surface. The female is duller in colour and is reddish-brown with 
a brown head, while there are crescentic bars of brown on the sides of the body and 
breast. 
This Shrike is of about the same size as the preceding 
species, but is easily to be told by its coloration, the back being 
black, with white shoulders and rump, the head and neck 
chestnut, with a broad frontal band of black, and the sides of the face also black. The 
Woodchat is a common summer visitor to the greater part of Europe, but has only 
occurred a few times in England, though it has been said to nest in the Isle of Wight. 
The eastern range of the species extends to the Caucasus and Western Persia, and it 
winters in North-eastern Africa and Senegambia. Like other Shrikes, the Woodchat 
takes up its perch in some conspicuous position on a bush or tree, from which it 
sallies forth after its insect prey, and its white breast renders it easily seen. It has 
a gentle and not unmusical song. The nest is more carefully built than is usually 
the case with Butcher-birds, and is placed in the fork of a tree, without any attempt 
to conceal it, beyond the fact that the materials of which it is composed resemble 
the bark of the tree in which it is placed. The eggs are from four to six in number, 
and are subject to the same variation as the eggs of the Red-backed Shrike. 
Of these birds, easily distinguishable by the curious 
tips to the secondary quills, which look like little tags of 
sealing-wax dropped on the ends of the feathers, there are 
three species found in the Northern parts of the Old and 
New Worlds. In the latter the commonest species is 
the Cedar-bird ( Ainpelis cedrorum), but the European Wax-wing also occurs in 
Arctic North America. 
THE WOODCHAT. 
(Lanins pomeranus.) 
THE WAX-WINGS. 
Family 
AMPELIDM. 
