8o Birds Every Child Should Know 



flesh from his victim's bones. He really looks 

 like nothing but just what he is — a butcher-bird. 

 See him, quiet and preoccupied, perched on 

 a telegraph pole on the lookout for a dinner! 

 A kingbird, or other flycatcher which chooses 

 similar perches, would sail off suddenly into 

 the air if a winged insect hove in sight, snap it 

 up, make an aerial loop in its flight and return 

 to its old place. Not so the solitary, sanguinary 

 shrike. When his wonderfully keen eyes de- 

 tect a grasshopper, a cricket, a big beetle, a 

 lizard, a little mouse, or a sparrow at a distance 

 in a field, he drops like an eagle upon the victim, 

 seizes it with his strong beak, and flies with 

 steady flapping strokes of the wings, close along 

 the ground, straight to the nearest honey locust 

 or spiny thorn ; then rises with a sudden upward 

 turn into the tree to impale his prey. Hawks, 

 who use the same method of procuring food, 

 have very strong feet ; their talons are of great 

 help in holding and killing their victims; but 

 the shrikes, which have rather weak, sparrow- 

 like feet, for perching only, are really compelled 

 in many cases to make use of stout thorns or 

 sharp twigs to help them quiet the struggles 

 of their victims. Weather-vanes, lightning 

 rods, bare branches, or the outermost or top 

 branches of tall trees, liigh poles, and telegraph 

 wires, which afford a fine bird's eye-view^ of the 

 surroimding hunting ground, are favourite points 



