114 OUR WINTER BIRDS 



or tree where, with much tugging and fitting, the 

 bird is stuck upon a thorn or hung from a close- 

 forked branch. Then the well-named Butcher-bird 

 can help himself at his leisure. 



Not only birds but also mice are found on the 

 Shrike's shambles, and often he wantonly leaves 

 them there, vain sacrifices to the instinct which 

 prompts him to destroy even when he is not hungry. 



There is one Sparrow-like trait which the Shrike 

 has not succeeded in discarding. A member of the 

 Order of Songbirds, he must still sing; and strange 

 it is in early spring to hear this cut-throat and hang- 

 man among birds warbling a song which is not unlike 

 that of a Catbird. One would as soon expect music 

 from a Hawk itself. 



The Shrike passes the summer in northern Canada 

 and comes to us in October to remain until early 

 April. One rarely sees more than a few individuals 

 during the winter, and the species does not often go 

 south of Maryland. 



He has a smaller southern cousin known as the 

 Loggerhead or Migrant Shrike, which in summer 

 nests as far north as southern Canada and winters 

 from Maryland southward. 



The Loggerhead lives chiefly on grasshoppers 

 and other insects which it detects at a distance of 

 thirty yards or more from its perch as they crawl 



