OUR BIRD ALLIES. g!I 
CHAPTER: VI. 
SHRIKES AND DAWS. 
SHRIKES-—Their victims and curious larder—A tipsy Butcher- 
bird — The Red-backed Shrike — Its fondness for cock- 
chafers—Domestic arrangements—DAws—The Jay—Cha- 
racter of its diet—The Jay in the preserves—The Jay in the 
corn-fields—A fatal lure—Pro and con—Waterton on the 
Jay—Mingled courage and cowardice of the bird—Its nest 
and eggs—The Raven—Its task in the world—The Raven 
in days of old—Depredations of the bird—The scavengers 
of nature—The evils of an unbridled tongue—Superstition 
and the Raven—Its nesting-places and domestic doings— 
The Carrion Crow —Its greatly-reduced numbers—Food of 
the Crow—A clever device—Waterton and the Crow— 
Character of the bird—The Hooded Crow—Its mischievous 
doings—Feathered setters—Nest of the Hooded Crow— 
Undeserving sufferers. 
VERY interesting birds are the Shrikes, or Butcher- 
birds, which almost deserve to take rank with the 
owls as regards the slaughter of mice, shrews, and 
various other small creatures which have earned for 
themselves the undying hatred of the agriculturist. 
Birds, frogs, lizards, beetles, grasshoppers, all the 
larger insects, in fact, fall frequent victims to the 
shrikes, which have a strange way of impaling their 
victims upon thorns in the neighbourhood of the 
nest, and so forming a kind of larder from which to 
draw when required. 
