THE NORTHERN SHRIKE. 59 



me hesitatingly for some time before concluding to 

 leave. 



In structure, as well as in habit, this bird is quite peculiar. 

 Its bill is not a little like that of a Hawk, while its feet and 

 claws, as well as its general figure, are ver}^ much like those 

 of certain birds of song; consequently, with much of the 

 bird of prey in its manner, it is still ranked, in point of 

 structure, between the Vireos and the Finches. It will 

 attack a Sparrow, peck out its brain, lug it around in its 

 beak, and make a meal of it at its leisure, as readily as any of 

 the Raptores, while in feeding it is in general as truly insectiv- 

 orous as that of the most innocent song-bird. Indeed, its 

 destruction of insect-life is altogether uncommon. It does 

 not merely consume them as food, but has a certain bar- 

 barous habit of impaling them in large numbers on thorns, 

 and that for no other purpose than mere wantonness, as it is 

 never known to appropriate them afterward as food. It will 

 sit by the hour in the presence of its struggling victims, and 

 seem utterly indifferent to their tortures. The common 

 European Shrike is represented as impaling small birds on 

 thorns in a similar manner. 



Wilson says: "It retires to t^e north, and to the higher 

 inland parts of the country to breed. It frequents the deep- 

 est forests; builds a large and compact nest in the upright 

 fork of a small tree, composed outwardly of dry grass, and 

 whitish moss, and warmly lined within with feathers. The 

 female lays six eggs, of a pale cinerous color, thickly marked 

 at the greater end with spots and streaks of rufous. She 

 sits fifteen days. The young are brought out early in June, 

 sometimes towards the end of May, and during the greater 

 part of the first season are of a brown ferruginous color on 

 the back." 



