I?2 SHRIKES. 



disposition which seems to lead them to kill and slay 

 from mere wantonness, together with a singular habit of 

 impaling their victim on thorns or cleft branches where 

 they are left. 



In this savage character they resemble the birds of 

 prey we have just noticed. In the form of their beak, 

 too, there is a close resemblance, it being short, arched, 

 and furnished with a strong projecting tooth near the 

 tip, which is acute, and very analogous to the true Falcons. 

 But they, at the same time, differ so essentially in other 

 points, that some modern naturalists have removed them 

 into a distinct class. Their limbs, for example, are very 

 different from the Eagle and Hawk tribe, the toes being 

 slender, and the claws comparatively weak. But although 

 slender, their pressure is nevertheless powerful, and the 

 l)ite they can inflict with their bill extremely severe, and 

 capable of drawing blood from a man's finger in an 

 instant. The uses of the separate qualities of the claws 

 and bill are seen from the mode in which they seize their 

 prey ; if, for instance, it is an insect, they pounce down, 

 secure it with their sharp notched bill, and then press it 

 under their feet to eat it. But when coming down on 

 a bird or a mouse which they have pursued for some 

 distance, they settle their feet on the head of the object 

 pursued, at the same moment that they strike it with 

 their bill, and in this manner one was seen carried a 

 very considerable distance by a dove, on which it had 

 fastened itself by its beak and feet. They differ again 

 from the Eagles and Falcons respecting the treatment 

 of their young. The Falcon tribe invariably driving 

 them off to shift for themselves as soon as they are full 

 grown, and capable of getting their own living, whereas 

 the Shrikes, although cruel to a degree in their general 

 habits, show a marked attachment, and of long continu- 

 ance, to their young ; and are indeed, in all respects, as 

 far as concerns each other, the most amiable birds 

 imaginable. They never drive them off, but live together 

 on the best terms till the following season, when they 



