104 BIRD-KEEPER'S MANUAL. 



elated with the strong-hooked bill of the Falcon. 

 There is also a resemblance in the habits and 

 manner of feeding of the Shrike. By stratagem 

 or pursuit he seizes small birds by the throat, 

 suffocating them, and then impaling them on 

 thorns,^ to be devoured at leisure; his claws being 

 insufficient for either holding or tearing them; 

 he also feeds on grasshoppers, and other large 

 insects, like the Jay, and impales them in the 

 same manner. On the approach of winter, this 

 bird visits us (from the mountain forests to the 

 north of us, where he breeds,) and is found in 

 the vicinity of Boston ; and in the midst of win- 

 ter, when hard pressed with hunger, in many 

 instances they have darted through panes of 

 glass after Canaries and other birds, hung in 

 cages inside, and have in general been taken in 

 the very act, and some of them have been brought 

 to me to see if they were Mocking Birds, as they 

 bear some resemblance to that bird. In one 

 instance, last winter, there was one who succeed- 

 ed in killing the poor Canary Bird before any 

 body came to the rescue ; he effected his escape 

 through the breach he had made, on the entry of 

 an inmate of the house, and without his prey after 

 all, which he was in the act of pulling through the 



* From this practice is derived the name of Butcher. 



