SHRIKES. 



separate by the instinctive laws of nature, each to procure 

 its mate. This, we are sorry to say, is the only redeem- 

 ing good quality we can point out in the character of 

 the Shrike genus ; for in all other respects their whole 

 lives seem to be spent in dealing out death and terror 

 to their fellows of the feathered creation. A London 

 bird-catcher, not long ago, caught one of them (Lanius 

 exciibitor) in his clap-net, in the act of pouncing down 

 upon a valuable decoy Linnet. At first he thought him- 

 self fortunate in capturing so rare and valuable a prize j 

 but in a very short time he was glad to get rid of it at 

 any price, for though it fed well on small birds and raw- 

 meat, and seemed tolerably accustomed to confinement, 

 the moment it opened its mouth, and uttered its well- 

 known note, his whole collection of singing birds were 

 put to silence. All small birds indeed have the strongest 

 antipathy to the Shrike, either betraying anger, or moan- 

 ing, or expressing signs of fear when it approaches their 

 nests. They will also mob, attack, and drive it away as 

 they do the Owl, as if they were well aware of its plun- 

 dering propensities; and with good reason, for it will 

 conceal itself in a bush, or perch itself on some upper 

 spray, to look out for prey : and no doubt avails itself 

 of the absence of the parent birds, in order to pillage 

 their nursery of nestlings ; for a gamekeeper, who was 

 in the habit of rearing Pheasants, observed, that if any 

 of his brood were weak or sickly, a Shrike would occa- 

 sionally contrive to draw them out through the bars of 

 the breeding-coops; and a gentleman who lived in a 

 part of North America where several of them harboured, 

 actually discovered them taking his favourite singing- 

 birds out of the cages which hung by his window. 



Their usual food is however insects ; but whether birds', 

 mice, or insects, the same singular propensity has been 

 remarked, that of frequently impaling the object they 

 have caught on a thorn or pointed stick. That it thus 

 destroys, when opportunity occurs, a far greater quantity 

 of living subjects than it can possibly consume, is unquea- 



