eee oe ee

ate of nature, I cannot perhaps do better

es of observing this bird in a st cs 7
it in the ‘ Ornithologie de la Savoye,

As we have had so few opportunitl

i sti assages respecting
a free translation of some interesting passages respecting

than give
by J. B. Bailly.

«© The Red-headed Shrike is abundant 10
the year. Towards the 20th or 25th of Apr
s furnished with underwood, in the woods
‘n the midst of fields planted with trees, and, lastly, in parks and

y during the four most beautiful months of

Switzerland and Savo
on the outskirts of the woods on our hills,

il it is seen in pairs

di | l of chestnut- and walnut-trees, in the poplars and
and in other place
willows ae border the roads and fields,
It is in these situations that it lives and br
n the borders and in the midst of marsh
itself to the marshes in company W
Both sexes assist in constructing the nest, taking it in turns to bring
d the female disposing of them, and vice versa. The

] eeds during the time it remains in our climate. It
orchards. :

resorts to the large trees 0
and towards the end of July betakes
ciate with that species until they depart.

and employ the materials—the male bringing them, an :
ingy plants to the branches of trees or underwood, and is outwardly composed
g) ‘

tly bound together with fibrous filaments ; the interior is
Towards the 15th of May the female deposits

y ground for the purpose of nidification,

ith Lanius minor, and continues to asso-

nest is attached by means of str
of lichens, roots, mosses, and small twigs compac
of very fine plants and morsels of wool.
sprinkled with various-sized spots of greyish ash-colour, par-
While sitting, the female is carefully attended by her
mate, who brings her worms, small reptiles, and occasionally a beakful of insects. She sits with so much

assiduity as to allow herself to be taken by the hand, ‘Two days after the hatching, the parents may be
, smooth and hairy caterpillars. One of the parents

composed of bits
four or five eggs, of a light-greenish white,
ticularly at the larger end, where they form a zone.

seen feeding their young ones with worms, small slugs
arm under its wings until the other undertakes the same duty. Their constant goings and

keeps them w é
often the cause of their progeny

comings, as well as their want of suspicion, during this epoch, are
becoming the prey of birdsnesters, shepherds especially ; these last, indeed, are in the habit of marking,
during the nesting-season, all the trees and bushes where they may see these birds stop. After the young
have left the nest, the male and the female still consort with their family until their migration, which
commences about the 25th of August for the more advanced flocks, and from the Ist to the loth of
September for the others. Before this period, families not yet dihunited are seen following one another
in short flights over the hedges and trees which border the roads, streams, or fields—perching from time
to time on the summits of the dead or more isolated branches, from which they utter their harsh and
short cries. They wage war with beetles, caterpillars, frogs, swall lizards, mice, and occasionally weakly
birds. When these kinds of food are wanting, they have recourse to fruits, especially to those of the small
cherry, plum, mulberry, and fig trees.”

Having a number of specimens of this bird now before me from various countries wide apart, I cannot but
notice that they differ considerably in size, and to some extent in their markings—those from Tangier being
very much smaller than the examples from Smyrna, Trebizond, and Italy, having the band crossing the fore-
head much narrower, and the white of the lores more extensive. The depth of the buff colouring of the
flanks differs greatly in all of them, probably in consequence of their having been more or less exposed to the
influence of light. In freshly-moulted birds the buffy hue shows very conspicuously, but would seem to be
evanescent.

In the male, the lores are creamy white; band across the forehead, line above and below the eye, and a
broad mark posterior to it down the side of the neck black ; behind the eye a narrow mark of white; crown
of the head, nape, and back of the neck rich reddish chestnut ; upper part of the back or mantle black, each
feather slightly edged with rufous; scapularies white; lower part of the back grey; rump and upper tail-
coverts white ; wings brown, the coverts narrowly edged with pale brown ; at the base of the primaries a
patch of white ; secondaries narrowly edged and more broadly tipped with white; under surface creamy
white, washed with buff on the flanks ; central tail-feathers black; the lateral feathers white at the base,
crossed oem the tip by a oe oblique mark of black, which occupies the inner web only of the outer feather,
the exterior web of that feather and the tips of all the lateral ones being white ; irides hazel; bill, legs, and
feet black.

“When the young quit the nest,” says M. Bailly, “about the end of August, they may be recognized by
the dusky red of the upper parts, with the exception of the head, which is adorned with a mixture of white
and grey, and the rump, which is marked with brown ; the under surface dirty white, with crescents of grey.

After their first moult, the upper part of the head, the neck, and the scapularies are varied with white, red,
brown, and black; the back is brown ; the rum

) Hn p greyish white, transversely rayed with a blackish colour ;
the white of the wing is shaded with russet : Soed

ae ; and the primaries are brown, tipped with white or reddish.”
ie Flate represents a male and a female of the size of life