MIDWINTER BIRDS 299 
In common with all winter birds, its movements are 
guided by the food-supply, and if severe cold and heavy 
snows drive away the small birds, and bury the mice 
upon which it feeds, the Shrike must necessarily rove. 
Grasshoppers, beetles, other large insects, and _field- 
mice are staple articles of its food in seasons when they 
are obtainable; in fact, next to insects, mice constitute 
the staple article of its diet; and protection should be 
accorded it on this account, even though we know the 
Shrike chiefly as the killer of small birds. The victims are 
caught by two methods: sneaking, — after the fashion of 
Crows, — and dropping upon them suddenly from a 
height, like the small Hawks. In the former case the 
Shrikes frequent clumps of bushes, either in open meadows 
or gardens, lure the little birds by imitating their call- 
notes, and then seize them as soon as they come within 
range. They often kill many more birds than they can 
possibly eat at a meal, and hang them on the spikes of a 
thorn or on the hooks of a cat-brier in some convenient 
spot, until they are needed, in the same manner as a butcher 
hangs his meat; and from this trait the name ‘‘ Butcher- 
bird” was given them. 
* * * * * * * 
During some of these wintry days of meeting, questions 
and answers about the birds seen filled the time, and then 
Gray Lady read to them from some of her many books 
what people living in other places had said and thought of 
these same familiar birds. Besides the stories, she told 
them many things about the building of a bird, its bones, 
its feathers, the reasons why of the various kinds of feet 
