218 NORTHERN SHRIKE. 



of the woodbine, sour gum, and otliers being taken in 

 turn. 



In August the Wax wing shows no mean gifts as a 

 flycatcher, while as a destroyer of the cankerworm he is 

 especially beneficial, repaying us with interest for the 

 fruit he may have appropriated earlier in the season. 



The Waxwing's wide range and ability to withstand 

 great extremes in temperature are doubtless due to the 

 ease with which it adapts itself to a change in fare. It 

 nests from Virginia to Labrador, and winters from Massa- 

 chusetts to Costa Kica. 



Shrikes. (Family Laniid^.) 



The marked difference in the temperament of birds is 



emphasized by finding among the song birds, who feed 



Northern Shrike, o^^ ^ ^'^^i*, seeds, and insects, a bird who 



Lanius boreaiis. ill liis positioii and choicc of food is 



Plate LViii. ^j.^^]y hawklike. Shrikes are solitary, 

 never assembling in flocks or associating with other birds. 

 Their days are days of waiting, varied by a pounce upon 

 some unfortunate field mouse or dash into a flock of un- 

 suspecting Sparrows. But, while they resemble the Hawks 

 in these respects, their manner of capturing their prey dif- 

 fers from that of their larger prototypes. The Shrike 

 has a Hawk's bill but a Sparrow's foot, and, lacking the 

 powerful talons which make so deadly a weapon, he cap- 

 tures his prey with his strong mandibles. Possibly it may 

 be due to his comparatively weak feet that he pursues the 

 singular custom of impaling his prey on some thorn or 

 hanging it from a crotch where he can better dissect it. 



The Shrike, or Butcher-bird, as he is also called, be- 

 longs to a large family, but, wdth the exception of his 

 smaller cousin the Loggerhead, he is the only one of the 

 two hundred known species found in America. He nests 



