of the Common Shrike* 367 



For it; in case, when they next become hungry, they should 

 not be successful in finding a sufficiency of food. Amongst 

 other species, I have observed that the tawny wood owl 

 (LMula stridula) will scratch up the ground with its claws, 

 and bury the remainder of a meal ; and I have also known it 

 to return to the spot when hungry, and avail itself of its in- 

 stinctive foresight. White of Selborne also notices this fact, 

 in his eleventh letter. Speaking of the brown owl, he says : 

 " when full, like a dog, it hides what it cannot eat." 



The red-backed shrike, in confinement, when it has fully 

 satisfied the cravings of its appetite, always fixes whatever it 

 cannot eat between the wires, upon the wooden crossbars of 

 its cage ; but never (as is the common opinion) fastens up its 

 prey for the purpose of tearing it to pieces. Small food, such 

 as insects or pieces of meat, if more than it can conveniently 

 take in a single mouthful, it usually holds in the manner 

 aforesaid [p. 366.], with one foot, like a parrot; a bird or a 

 mouse it carries in its bill to a perch, holds it firm to the 

 perch with one foot, and tears off mouthfuls with its beak ; 

 swallowing, like a regular bird of prey, a good deal of fur or 

 feathers, which are afterwards ejected in pellets by the mouth. 



This latter is common to many more birds than is generally 

 supposed: I have ascertained that the cuckoo thus casts up 

 the skins of caterpillars, in pellets about the size of a robin's 

 egg; the evejar thus ejects the elytra of beetles and the wings 

 of moths; and the nightingale, the robin, and the redstart 

 also cast up the indigestible parts of the insects upon which 

 they have been feeding. [See VIL 514-.] 



This species of shrike never (like the Lanius excubitor) 

 attacks a bird upon the wing # ; but pounces down upon those 

 which happen to be on the ground, or. upon a branch beneath 

 it ; in the latter case, bearing down its prey to the ground. 

 There is immediately, of course, a great deal of squeaking 

 and struggling, and feathers are made to fly in all directions ; 

 but the shrike very soon expands its wings, and spreads its 

 tail over its victim, in exactly the manner of a falcon ; and 

 despatches it (not, in the cases which I have observed, by 

 strangulation, but) by biting and compressing the head, and 

 picking a hole in the skull. It then seizes it with its bill, and 

 flies off with it to the horizontal bough of a tree, where the 

 greater part of it is finished at a single meal. I have known 

 it, in this manner, to attack whitethroats ; and have been told 



* "When pursuing its prey," says Bechstein, "the shrike" (L. excubitor) 

 " makes a particular movement, in order to seize it on the side ; but it does 

 not always succeed, as it cannot use its claws like birds of prey, and often 

 only carries off a beakful of feathers." 



c c 4 



