1-j2 the FE-^TIiERED TRIBES. 



isolated branches of trees and thickets, a position which their peculiar mode of chase 

 seems to re(]uirc. For as they flj' with difhculty, and always drop perpciidicidarly on 

 their prey, they thus secure an elevated situation for that purpose, which they coidd not 

 obtain by attempting to rise from the ground. Dropping thus on their victim, they 

 force it to the cai'th, where it is instantly seized and torn in pieces. In this manner the 

 great shrike catches small birds, field-mice, and other small quadrupeds. The 

 destruction of these last is an advantage to the farmer, and, accordingly, in many 

 countries, this bird is spared and regarded from this circumstance, and also because it 

 desti'oys a number of pernicious insects, and never does the slightest injury. 



A wi'iter in the " Natui'alist" informs us, that he was first led to discover a bird of this 

 species hj hearing notes very nruch like those of a stonechat, yet not quite familiar to 

 him, of which the utterer, to his surprise, was a butcher-bird ; on continuing to listen, 

 these notes were soon exchanged for others of a softer and more melodious character, not 

 however prolonged into a continuous song or strain. This statement is corroborated by 

 Beehstcin. " Its cry," he says, " resembles the guir cjuir of the lark : like the nut- 

 cracker, it can imitate the different notes, but not the songs of other birds. Nothing is 

 more agreeable than its own warbling, which much resembles the whistling of the gray 

 parrot ; its throat being at the same time expanded Like that of the green frog. It is a 

 great pity that it sings only during the pairing season, which is from March to May ; 

 and even then it often spoils the beautiful melody of its song with some harsh and 

 discordant notes. The female also sings." 



Mr. Selby describes the singular manner in which this bird devours its prey. One wliich 

 he saw had just killed a hedge-sparrow, and was hovering with it in its bill over the 

 hedge, aj^parently occupied in selecting a thorn fit for the required purpose ; and on his 

 afterwards approaching the spot, Mr. Selby found the avceiiior firmly fixed by the tendon 

 of the wing to the selected twig. ^Vlien confined in a cage the same love of fixing its 

 food before it tears it in pieces is discovered, and for this purpose, the bird usually avails 

 itself of the wires of its jirison, among which it intertwines its dead captive. One 

 species, the lanius coUaris, of Southern Africa, is described as showing these peculiarities 

 in a marked manner. Le Yalliant says, that when it sees a locust or a mantis, or small 

 bii'd, it springs iqjon it, and immediately carries it off to impale it, which it always docs 

 by passing the thorn through the head of its victim. Every animal which it seizes is 

 subjected to the same fate ; and it thus continues through the day its murderous career, 

 apparently instigated rather by the love of inisuliief than the desire of food. " Its 

 throne of tyranny," as Le A'"alliaut designates it, is usually a diy and elevated branch of 

 a tree, from which it pounces on all intruders, driving off the stronger and more ti'ouble- 

 some, and impaling the inexperienced alive ; when hungry, it visits its shambles and 

 helps itself to a savoury meal. The Hottentots assured the traveller that the bird 

 does not prefer fresh food, and therefore leaves its prey on the gibbet till it becomes 

 putrescent ; but beneath the scorching sun of Africa, the j^rocess of decomposition 

 sometimes does not take place, from the rapid exhalation of the animal fluids in a warm 

 and arid atmosphei'o, and consequontl}', whatever spiry .slind) may have been chosen, 

 it is frequently found covered, not with sweet smellhig blossoms, but with the dried 

 carcases of singing birds, and the bodies of insects. 



Beehstcin intimates that in Franco and Germany this bird is stationary, but in more 

 nortliern countries it is migratory, passing soutliwurd on the api^roach of winter. 

 According to Mr. Selby, it is only in the winter that this bird arrives in Britain. Ho 

 says, " By some of the British oniilholdgists it has been mentioned as arriving in spring 

 and departing in autumn. From tliis view of its liabits. I nuist be permitted to dissent ; 

 all the specimens that have come under my observation having been lulled iiv the mouths 

 of November, December, and Janua)v." 



