The Butcher-birds or Shrikes 8i 



of vantage for both shrikes. When it is time 

 to husk the corn, every farmer's boy must have 

 seen a shrike sitting on a fence-rail or hovering 

 in the air ready to seize the httle meadow mice 

 that escape from the shocks. 



It is sad to record that sometimes shrikes also 

 sneak upon their prey. When they resort to 

 this mean method of securing a dinner they 

 leave the high perches and secrete themselves 

 in clumps of bushes in the open field. Luring 

 little birds within striking distance by imitating 

 their call notes, they pounce upon a terror- 

 striken sparrow before you could say "Jack 

 Robinson." Shrikes seem to be the only 

 creatures that really rejoice in the rapid increase 

 of English sparrows. In summer they prefer 

 large insects, especially grasshoppers, but in 

 winter when they can get none, they must 

 have the fresh meat of birds or mice. At 

 any season they deserve the fullest protection 

 for the service they do the farmer. Shrikes 

 kill only that they themselves may live, and not 

 for the sake of slaughter, which is a so-called 

 sport reserved for man alone, who in any case, 

 should be the last creature to condemn them. 



The loggerhead's call-notes are harsh, creak- 

 ing, and unpleasant, but at the approach of the 

 nesting season he proves that he really can sing, 

 although not half as well as his cousin, the 

 northern shrike, who astonishes us w4th a fine 



