ME SHRIKES. 
169 
on the plains of Eastern Africa sitting about on the thorny 
bushes, and behaving much as the species does in England, 
and he considered that it was likely they were about to nest, 
as they were in beautiful spring plumage. As is well known, 
however, many of our migratory species gain their most bril- 
liant plumage before they leave their winter quarters, and come 
to Europe only after their breeding-dress is perfectly donned ; 
and up to the present there is no evidence of the nesting of 
the Red backed Shrike in any part of Africa. Another winter 
home of the species is the Persian Gulf, where it has been 
found by Mr. W. I). Cumming, and it also visits India, in the 
extreme north-west of which country it has been found in the 
cold season. 
Habits. — There is much that reminds us of a Flycatcher in 
the way in which the present species captures its food, for it has 
undoubtedly favourite perches, on which it sits, and to which 
it returns after the capture of an insect. It is frequently to be 
seen on telegraph-wires, whence it keeps a sharp look-out in 
every direction, and a favourite resort is a field of freshly- 
cut grass. It also captures a good many mice and small birds, 
not pursuing them in the open like birds of prey, but dropping 
down on them suddenly. In the British Museum is a very 
good specimen of the larder of a Red-backed Shrike, taken with 
the nest of the bird by Lord Walsingham in Norfolk, and 
showing the way in which the Shrike spits insects and birds on 
thorns, and the species has been known, according to Captain 
Clark-Kennedy, to hang up birds even bigger than itself, such 
as Blackbirds and Thrushes, as well as Tits of several kinds, 
Robins and Hedge-Sparrows, while it will also occasionally 
seize young Partridges and Pheasants. Wherever the bird 
occurs it is somewhat local, and Mr. Aplin, in the paper above 
referred to, says that the distribution of the Red-backed Shrike 
“seems, within certain limits, to be determined mainly by the 
nature of the soil and climate, and the bearing of these upon 
the insect life of a particular district. The favourite food of 
this Shrike during its residence with us consists of large-bodied 
insects, especially beetles and bees; and I believe that the 
comparative abundance or scarcity of that food in any given 
district largely determines the numerical strength or weakness 
of this species therein. A warm soil {e.g., sand, gravel, lime- 
