V 
THE BUTCHER-BIRD 
“ BUTCHER-BIRD ”’ is not a very pretty name, 
but it is expressive and appropriate, and so is 
likely to stick quite as long as the more bookish 
word “ shrike,” which is the bird’s other title. 
It comes from its owner’s habit of impaling the 
carcasses of its prey upon thorns, as a butcher 
hangs upon a hook the body of a pig or other 
animal that he has slaughtered. 
In a place like the Public Garden of Boston, 
if a shrike happens to make it his hunting-ground 
for a week. or two, you may find here and there 
in the hawthorn-trees the body of a mouse or the 
headless trunk of an English sparrow spitted upon 
a thorn. Grasshoppers are said to be treated 
in a similar manner, but I have never met with 
the bird’s work in the grasshopper season. 
The shrike commonly seen in the Northern 
States is a native of the far north, and comes 
down to our latitude only in cold weather. He 
travels singly, and if he finds a place to suit him, 
a place where the living is good, he will often 
