THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 
61 
small birds, are detailed by several ornithologists 
worthy of credit,* while it is known that it is 
frequently taken by the London bird catchers 
when striking at the decoy birds in the clap net. 
The nest is generally placed in a bush or hedge, 
and has not yet been recorded to be built on 
trees, as that of the gray shrike is occasionally ; 
it is comparatively a large structure, coarsely but 
firmly built with weak twigs, roots, &c. as a 
base work, and lined with moss, grass, hair, or 
wool. The eggs seem somewhat variable ; those 
in our possession are milk-white, spotted with 
rufous, and they are described as bluish white, 
spotted and zoned with wood brown and ash gray, 
also greenish white, with dark spots. 
The head, back of the neck, and rump, are ash 
gray; the centre of the back and wing coverts 
reddish brown ; space between the eye and the 
bill, surrounding the eyes and auriculars, deep 
black ; the under parts, when newly killed, pale 
peach-blossom red, inclining to pure white on 
the throat, and varying in intensity in different 
species ; quills are wood brown ; the tail has the 
four centre feathers entirely black, those on the 
sides white at the base, that colour forming a bar 
across, and limiting the black of the tips gradu- 
ally towards the exterior feathers ; shafts black 
for their whole length ; on the last feather the 
outer web is white entirely, and the black assumes 
the form of an irregular spot at the tip. The 
Hewitson, Knapp, Blyth. 
