SHRIKES. 159 



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 show a marked attachment, 

 and of long continuance, 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 separate 

 by the instinctive laws of nature, each to procure its mate. 

 This, we are sorry to say, is the only redeeming 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 a Great Grey Shrike 

 in his clap-net, in the act of pouncing down upon a valuable 

 decoy Linnet. At first he thought himself fortunate in 

 capturing so rare and valuable a prize ; 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 

 moaning, 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 plundering 

 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 

 occasionally contrive to draw them out through the bars of the 



