A friend informed me the other day that he had hung his two canaries in their cages out in his garden, only to find when next he looked at them that both birds had had their heads torn off. His house-boy, he said, told him this fell deed was the work of a large bird with a Sharp beak. As a matter of fact there is only one bird in the Shanghai area that can have been the perpetrator of the crime, and it does not require the brains of a Sinza Road sleuth to fix it on the well-known Chinese red-backed shrike or butcher-bird (Lanius schacht), Indeed, birds of this species are notorious for doing just this—attacking pet birds in cages "whenever they can get at them, and bird fanciers should be very careful how, when and where they hang their pets out in the open. Some years ago when living on Vu Yuen Road I had some small tropical birds in a cage, and, thinking to give them a treat, I hung the cage in a peach tree, where they would be surrounded by green foliage and could enjoy the sunshine seeping down through the overhead canopy of leaves. When I took the cage in later in the day, I found one of the birds, a little nunbird, lying dead on its floor with one leg literally torn off. I had noticed a shrike about the garden during the day, but had given it little heed, as I did not then know of its criminal propensities, although, I admit, I should have done, since the fact that all shrikes are predatory in their habits should have rendered thi the largest and fiercest of the Chinese species, automatically suspect. Since that occasion I have more than once actually seen this shrike attacking birds in cages, and there is no doubt about its being a regular gangster of the bird world and Public Enemy No. 1 in our Shanghai gardens, where hawks seldom if ever intrude, and the only other bird of prey to be found is Whiteley's owlet, which is becoming increasingly rare in the immediate vicinity of this city. Not only does the redbacked shrike attack cage birds when it gets the chance, but it is also a menace to the nestlings and fledglings of other birds in our gardens. One morning this year, as I was dressing, I was watching from my window the sparrows, bulbuls and doves feeding on the bird table on my lawn, which I keep supplied with food for them. It was late spring or early summer, and there were many newly-fledged sparrows and bulbuls amongst the older birds. Suddenly there was a great commotion, the feeders scattering in every direction, as a redbacked shrike dashed down upon them from.a neighbouring tree. One young sparrow lost its head and flew to the ground instead of into the. bushes as the others had done. Like a flash the shrike was upon it, seizing it in its claws, and nipping its head with its cruel hooked beak. The shrike then bore the baby sparrow up into a lilac tree. I hurried down to the garden only to find the little bird hanging by its neck from a forked branch. As it was stone dead I left it there to show my wife, but, when I returned with her a few minutes later, it was gone. So was the shrike. Late summer is the time of year when these birds are most in evidence in our Shanghai gardens. Just now one may hear them most of the day uttering their loud querulous chattering cries, and may see them perched on the tops of flagpoles or the bamboo supports of radio aerials as they issue their challenge to the world. About the size of a blackbird or thrush, this shrike may be recognized by its grey head and mantle, creamy-buff throat and breast, rufous' back, rump and flanks, black eye-band, dark wings and dark rather long tail. It is a handsome bird and extremely intelligent. Also it can sing very sweetly.—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.