136 THE LIVING ANIMALS OL THE WORLD 
Five species are commonly included in the list of British birds, although only two 
occur with any frequency; of these, the Great Grev Shrike visits Great Britain every winter ; 
whilst the smaller Red-backed Shrike is an annual summer visitor to those islands, breeding, 
however, only in England, occurring but occasionally in Scotland, and being almost unknown in 
Ireland, where only one specimen has ever been recorded. 
The Red-backed Shrike, writes Dr. Sharpe, “ reminds us of a fly-catcher in the way in which 
[it] 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, 
where 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 
VValsingham in Norfolk, and showing the way in which the shrike spits insects and birds 
on thorns ; and the species has been knowm . . . 
to hang up birds ev'en 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.” 
Though undeniably unmusical, the red-backed 
shrike is nevertheless able to imitate with 
considerable success the notes of other small 
birds, decoying them by this means within 
striking distance — an accomplishment shared also 
by other members of the Shrike Family. The 
present species is attractively clothed in a 
plumage varied wdth black, grey, rufous, and 
chestnut-brown, the last being the predomi- 
nating hue of the upper-parts; hence the name 
Red-backed Shrike. 
The habits of its congener, the Great Grey 
Shrike, are precisely similar. A caged specimen 
which had become very tame would take food 
from its captor’s hands. When a bird was 
given it, the skull was invariably broken at once, 
after which, holding the body in its claws, the 
shrike would proceed to tear it in pieces after the 
fashion of a hawk. Sometimes, instead, the carcase 
w'ould be forced through the bars of the cage — 
in lieu of thorns — and then pulled in pieces. 
Very different in appearance from the members of the Shrike Family are a group of 
possibly allied forms knowm as Wax-WINGS. Of pleasing but sober coloration, they are 
remarkable for certain curious appendages to the inner quill-feathers, of a bright sealing-wax 
red colour, from which they derive their name : similar wax-like appendages occur also, some- 
times, on the tail-feathers. 
Breeding in the Arctic Circle, wmx-w’ings occur in both the Old and New Worlds, though 
some species peculiar to the latter region lack the w’ax-like appendages characteristic of the 
majority of the species. These birds are erratic in their movements, and large bands occasionally 
visit the British Islands during the autumn and w'inter, the eastern counties being usually the 
most favoured spots; but on the occasion of one of these immigrations, in the winter of 1872, 
many were seen in the neighbourhood of the North of London. During the summer they feed 
on insects, but in autumn and winter on berries and fruit. At this time they become very fat 
REED-WARBLER 
A common hird^ arri'ving in April^ and leanjing again 
September 
