PERCHING BIRDS. 47 
advantages also for the capture of its prey. It is a noisy 
bird during the breeding season, its clamorous cries of 
defiance on the approach of danger only exposing it to 
greater notice. Amongst its eggs which I have taken I 
have one pretty specimen, the ground of which is suf- 
fused with a pale pink, and the encircling band of spots 
at the larger end is a deep red. 
It has long been asserted that the shrikes fix insects 
on thorns in order to decoy small birds within their 
reach. This, though disputed by some, is believed in by 
others, and I confess myself of the latter number. 
Rennie relates, in his Architecture of Birds, that a 
friend of his expressing his doubts of this habit, he un- 
dertock for his own satisfaction, as well as his friend’s, 
to endeavour to ascertain the fact, and he soon found 
within five miles of Lee, in Kent, half a dozen nests of 
each species. ‘“ We discovered,” he says, “that near 
those nests large insects, such as humble-bees, and the 
unfledged nestlings of small birds were frequently seen 
stuck upon thorns. We did not succeed in seeing the 
birds actually impaling their victims, but we ascertained 
what we considered good proof of the fact; for the 
peasants, who had never heard of the story,” which he 
says was first promulgated by Heckwelder, “all concurred 
in affirming that the butcher-birds fix their prey upon 
thorns, not, however, according to their belief, to allure 
larger game, but to kill or secure what has been already 
captured.” 
The fact of the shrikes impaling on thorns the bodies 
of small birds which they have killed has been too often 
observed and too well authenticated to admit of doubt; 
but I should imagine that the mangled body of a hedge- 
sparrow or yellow bunting would offer little that was 
