14 The Red-backed Shreke. 
i 
few bars of dark. Length, seven inches; breadth, 
eleven inches. Eggs cream-colour and grey, with a 
belt of spots light green, brown, and ash-colour. 
This bird is a summer visitor to our midland and 
southern counties, leaving us again early in autumn; 
it is a bird of prey, but cannot well be classed with 
either the hawk or the owl, as its method of catching 
its food is quite different: both the former species cap- 
ture their prey with their talons, while the Shrike uses 
its bill and flies off with its victim inits beak: it feeds © 
on small birds, beetles, and other large insects. It is 
a great mimic, and will imitate the notes of the hedge- 
sparrow, robin, or nightingale. It is said to mock these 
birds for the purpose of drawing them to its haunts so 
that itcan make a more sure prey; when it has seized 
its food, it impales it on thorns, tearing away the 
feathers and skin, eating only the flesh. If this bird 
is kept in a cage, it will stick its food between the wires 
before making its meal. In the month of June I have 
often seen the Shrike perched on the top of some high 
hawthorn hedge, or on a low naked bough of a tree 
close to a high boundary, where it can command a 
good view of the ground below, and from these places 
it may be seen to fly a short distance ; its flight resem- 
