HOW A BIRD FEEDS. 55 



many friends : the swallow, and martin, sand- 

 martin and fly-catcher. Not one of these will 

 deign to touch the earth to take from it one 

 morsel of food, but captures it in passing through 

 the air. 



Vie referred, in an earlier part of this chapter, 

 to the butcher-bird or shrike as it is more 

 properly called. This, like the nut-hatch, is 

 peculiar in that it often has to resort to a 

 mechanical device to enable it to attack and 

 demolish its food. The shrike, which feeds 

 largely upon small birds, mice, frogs and beetles, 

 transfixes these upon sharp thorns, then pro- 

 ceeds to tear pieces from them, leaving the 

 remains to rot in the sun. Usually it keeps 

 to one bush, at least for some time, for this 

 purpose, and consequently the effect is rather 

 ghastly after a while. The hawk, which feeds 

 upon similar food, holds it by both feet ; but the 

 feet of the shrike are perhaps not strong enough 

 for this purj^ose. 



The nut-hatch, one of our woodland, as the 

 shrike is one of our hedgerow birds, seems only 

 to have recourse to artifice when feeding on 

 nuts or hard seeds. Its chief diet is of insects. 

 Nuts it breaks open by thrusting them into 

 chinks and crevices in the bark of trees, and then, 

 taking firm hold of the bark with both feet, it 

 uses its beak as a sort of pick-axe, hammering 

 away until the shell breaks and the coveted 

 kernel is exposed. The noise made dtiring this 

 operation is considerable. The nut-hatch seems 

 to know instinctively a sound nut from an empty 

 shell without breaking it. Out of a liberal supply 



