NESTS AND EGGS. 
pink -eyed florets of hawthorn rival each other in the hedge- 
rows, the sparrow -like note of the shrike may be heard, and 
the bold black head seen, as he perches, sentinel-like, on some 
twig or spray. The nest is also found in some shady locality, 
— a lar.ge mass of twigs on the outside, with fibrous roots of 
plants and green moss, with an internal lining of hair, put 
together in a somewhat slovenly manner, not very unlike the 
nest of the missel-thrush, is the butcher-bird’s performance. 
In this nest the red shrike lays four or five eggs, of an oval 
shape, about an inch in length by about five-eighths in breadth, 
of a reddish white, covered with brown spots, which form a 
band round it at the thick part. 
The nest is sometimes selected to receive the egg of the 
cuckoo, and the bird even bestows its paternal care on the 
young cuckoo when hatched. In the Linnean Transactions 
for 1861 , a paper states that a pair of red shrikes were 
observed feeding a young cuckoo which was perched on the 
branch of an oak, a fact which has been confirmed by 
Temminck, who says that the cuckoo will sometimes lay its 
egg in the nest of this bird. 
