WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



thus encounter more foes, and fall an easier prey, 

 than if they deferred their ramblings until day- 

 light. Being out nights is a bad practice 1 The 

 prairie rattlesnakes are especially fond of mice; 

 minks, weasels, skunks, and badgers eat as many 

 as they can catch, and this probably is not a few ; 

 domestic cats hunt them eagerly, seeming to pre- 

 fer them to house-mice — no doubt they are more 

 sweet and delicate; foxes also enjoy them; dogs 

 and wolves dig them out of their burrows and de- 

 vour them; prairie fires burn multitudes of them, 

 and farmer boys trap them. But, after all, perhaps 

 their chief foes are the flesh-eating birds. 



We have in this country two black, white, and 

 gray birds called shrikes, or butcher-birds, which 

 are only about the size of robins, but are very strong, 

 brave, and noble in appearance. These shrikes 

 have the curious habit of killing more game than 

 they need, and hanging it up on thorns, or lodging 

 it in a crack in the fence or the crotch of a tree. 

 They seem to hunt just for the fun of it, and kill 

 for the sake of killing. Now their chief game is 

 the unhappy field-mouse; and in Illinois they are 

 known as "mouse-birds." They never seem to 

 eat much of the flesh of their victims, generally 

 only pecking their brains out, but murder an enor- 



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