164 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



practice of impaling their food upon tliorns or the lilce, thus 

 securing, according to an European superstition, nine victims 

 every daj', wlience tliey are in some places called "■nine-kill- 

 ers." There are three theories often advanced to explain this 

 extraordinary and characteristic cruelty, which are as follows : 

 That the shrikes are fond of tainted meat ; that they are nat- 

 urally provident for the future ; and that they employ their 

 food, to a certain extent, as bait. The former of these theo- 

 ries may be refuted by the evidence, which has, I believe, been 

 generally given, even from observations upon specimens in 

 confinement, that the "Butcher-birds" never feed upon these 

 stores. The last -theory is absurd, as Wilson has already de- 

 monstrated, since the}' can at any time, by swiftness and dex- 

 terity of flight, seize a small bird who ventures near them, 

 and need never resort to guile or deceit, and since, if grass- 

 hoppers be the creatures impaled, our winter-birds, upon whom 

 the shrikes prey, are all granivorous or seed-eating, never 

 touching insects (except, perhaps, in summer), and since in 

 many cases the victims impaled are birds, who certainly would 

 not serve satisfactorily as bait to attract their friends. I re- 

 gret very much that I have not had enough opportunities for 

 studying thoroughly the habits of the "Butcher-birds" to de- 

 cide this question, but, in want of evidence, I am inclined 

 to suppose that they keep up this murderous practice solely 

 from instincts of cruelty, and perhaps other instincts, allied to 

 the thieving and hiding propensities of the magpies and their 

 relations, though, indeed, their acts are murder in the first 

 degree and without secrecy. In brief, is it not probable that 

 they exercise this barbarity and ferocity simpl}' in sport, and 

 for their amusement? I cannot, at present, present to the 

 public any more satisfactoiy explanation. 



(d). Audubon and Nuttall both state that the Great North- 

 ern Shrikes imitate the notes of other birds to attract their 

 attention and to allure them into danger, but I have known no 

 modern ornithologists to confirm these statements, which at 

 present need corroboration. Whilst here in winter, the Shrikes 

 are usually silent, and I have but once heard them uttering 



