60 THE SECOND BOOK OF BIRDS 
on the ground, in the most amiable way. This 
shrike is a sweet singer, too. The song is not 
loud, but very pleasing. 
A great deal that is not true has been said 
about this bird. Some people seem to think he 
is in the habit of tormenting and killing little 
birds for fun, and he is called many hard names. 
But he does not deserve them. His way of keep- 
ing his food has been spoken of as if it were a 
crime. He lives generally on crickets, grasshop- 
pers, meadow mice, and small snakes, besides 
cut-worms, cankerworms, and many others. He 
is extremely useful to farmers and cultivators on 
that account. 
Sometimes, when other food is scarce, he eats 
small birds, but they are by no means his usual 
food. I have watched a family of shrikes sev- 
eral times, and always looked very sharply to 
see if they touched birds. I have seen them eat 
many sorts of insects and grubs, and meadow 
mice, but never saw one disturb a bird. Other 
people who have watched them closely have 
told that their experience was the same. And 
writers about birds who study for themselves, 
and do not merely repeat what others have said, 
generally agree that the bird kills his prey be- 
fore he impales it. More than that, the number 
of birds he kills is very small compared to the 
