GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER-BIRD. 259 



summer abode in the thickest forests in Pennsylvania, and 

 New England. The nest is said to be large and compact, 

 in the fork of a small tree, and sometimes in an apple- 

 tree, composed externally of dried grass, with whitish moss, 

 and well lined with feathers. The eggs are about 6, of a 

 pale cinereous white, thickly marked at the greater end 

 with spots and streaks of rufous. The period of sitting 

 is about 15 days. The young appear early in June, or 

 the latter end of May. 



The principal food of this species is large insects, such 

 as grasshoppers, crickets, and spiders. With the surplus 

 of the former, as well as small birds, he disposes in a very 

 singular manner, by impaling them upon thorns, as if 

 thus providing securely for a future supply of provision. 

 In the abundance however, which surrounds him in the 

 ample store-house of nature, he soon loses sight of this 

 needless and sportive economy, and like the thievish Pie 

 and Jay, he suffers his forgotten store to remain drying and 

 bleaching in the elements till no longer palatable or diges- 

 tible to their hoarder. As this little Butcher, like his more 

 common European representative, preys upon birds, these 

 impaled grasshoppers were imagined to be lures to at- 

 tract his victims, but his courage and rapacity render such 

 snares both useless and improbable, as he has been 

 known, with the temerity of a Falcon, to follow a bird 

 in to an open cage sooner than lose his quarry. Mr. 

 J. Brown, of Cambridge, informs me, that one of these birds 

 had the boldness to attack two Canaries, in a cage, sus- 

 pended one fine winter's day at the window. The poor 

 songsters in their fears fluttered to the side of the cage, 

 and one of them thrust its head through the bars of his 

 prison, at this instant the wily Butcher tore oif his head, 

 and left the body dead in the cage. The cause of the 

 accident seemed wholly mysterious, till, on the following 



