g2 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
The real object of this curious habit has never 
been ascertained. Some writers have suggested that 
the bird is taught by instinct, as the outcome of the 
accumulated experience of many generations, that 
the flavour of game is superior to that of newly- 
killed meat, and that this flavour can only be pro- 
duced by waiting for incipient putrefaction to take 
place. This theory, however, at best a somewhat 
fanciful one, offers no explanation of the fact that 
insects, which only dry up under similar treatment, 
are impaled quite as frequently as larger victims. 
Others have supposed that the thorn serves the pur- 
pose of a fork, and holds the prey firmly while it is 
pecked to pieces and devoured. But the bird, when 
feeding, holds its victim with the claws, just as does 
any other bird of prey. It may of course be that 
the shrike is a provident and foreseeing bird, and lays 
up a supply of food in the event of a subsequent 
dearth, but whether this be the true explanation of 
this curious habit yet remains to be proved. 
Upon one occasion, when quite a boy, I found a 
shrike take very kindly to sweets, but that, perhaps, 
was under circumstances which would scarcely be 
considered as affording a fair base for a scientific 
experiment. 
I was ‘“‘sugaring” for moths at the time, and, 
noticing a bird fluttering rather helplessly in a bush, 
boy-like, ‘‘made for” it, captured it after a lengthened 
pursuit, and ascertained it to bea young shrike, which 
had probably just left the nest for the first time. As 
the bird lay in my hand with its beak widely opened, I 
