368 Remarkable Individual 



of an instance of its thus seizing an adult cock chaffinch, 

 which, on the sudden approach of my informant, it relin- 

 quished before it had much injured. I have also known 

 several cases of its being taken in the nets of birdcatchers, 

 whilst endeavouring to seize upon their brace-birds, the nets 

 having been spread under a tall hedge. 



Most of the smaller birds, from the missel thrush down- 

 ward, exhibit a marked hostility towards the common shrike, 

 more particularly at the time of its first appearance in the 

 spring ; and they seem to be instinctively aware that it only 

 attacks them from above, as, except when it is hovering along, 

 they do not appear to be much alarmed at its presence, 

 but keep up a continual chattering noise around ; the missel 

 thrush even boldly attacking it, and driving it away from 

 near its nest. After a time, however, its more immediate neigh- 

 bours appear to get a little accustomed to its presence, and 

 forbear to notice it. Indeed, it is not, perhaps, very often, ex- 

 cept when after a long continuance of rain the various larger 

 insects have become scarce, that this species of shrike attacks 

 the smaller vertebrate animals : its principal and main food 

 consisting usually of the larger coleopterous and hymenop- 

 terous insects, and, towards the autumn, grasshoppers. They 

 devour vast numbers of wasps ; and early in the season, when 

 the large female wasps are prowling about, I have taken as 

 many as four or five of these from the stomach of a single 

 bird. In confinement, they are very fond of the common 

 house fly ; and will soon clear a room of these, if they are 

 turned loose into it. They seem, however, even at a very 

 early age, to be very partial to warm-blooded prey ; and they 

 will attack most eagerly, and kill, a bird as large as them- 

 selves, almost immediately upon quitting the nest, and long 

 before they have cast their first plumage. 



Still, however, in a state of nature, it is not very often that 

 an opportunity occurs of seeing this species of shrike attack 

 a living bird ; and, consequently, some observers have even 

 doubted whether it ever does so, having always found insect 

 food in its stomach, and never having noticed it to display 

 any hostile feeling towards the smaller birds around. I have 

 myself found the nest of this species, and that of the white- 

 throat, in adjoining bushes. But nothing could be deduced 

 from this; for Sir W. Jardine found a wild duck sitting 

 within ten paces of the eyry of a peregrine falcon ; and Mr. 

 Waterton furnishes us with an instance of a pair of wood 

 pigeons selecting for nidification the very tree on which a 

 couple of magpies had already built their nest. The truth is, 

 most predatory animals in a state of nature do not usually 

 seek their food in the immediate vicinity of their abode. In 



