SHRIKES. 161 



design of catching this Butcher-bird, six very small steel traps 

 were set, baited with mica On the following day two of the 

 traps were found to be sprung, and the baits gone. As it was 

 not an easy matter to accomplish this without being caught, 

 the traps were then watched. At length the Shrike ap- 

 proached, and darting down, was rising perpendicularly with 

 his prize ; but in this instance, notwithstanding the celerity of 

 his movements, the teeth of the trap caught his claws and 

 secured him by two of the toes. The bird was put in a room, 

 in which a thorn-bush was placed, and some dead mice 

 provided, one of which he was soon observed to seize, and spit 

 on a thorn with the greatest quickness and dexterity.* 



That one of the reasons for thus transfixing their prey is for 

 the purpose of more conveniently feeding on it, there can be 

 no doubt ; for if confined in a cage, they evince a similar 

 propensity, and if not provided with a thorn, will invariably 

 fasten it to the wires before commencing their repast. It has, 

 however, been suggested, that as the quantity destroyed, 

 particularly of insects, so far surpasses the wants of the 

 destroyer, they may be placed on the thorns as baits. This 

 seems to be a prevailing opinion in America, where one species 

 of this bird, called the Nine-killer, is very abundant, for on 

 spots frequented by it, the thorn-bushes may be seen furnished 

 on the naked thorns with grasshoppers, transfixed precisely in 

 the same manner ; all regularly, and in their natural position 

 as when on the ground, not one of them having his back 

 downwards. After the frost sets in, there they still remain 

 unconsumed; the Shrikes, at the same time, watching the 

 smaller birds, and catching them near these hedges. 



Of the three species visiting England, one only, we 

 believe, breeds here, namely, the Red-backed Shrike. It is 

 one of our latest birds of passage, probably coming from a 

 great distance, as it is found in the southern part of Africa, as 

 well as South America, and also probably because the insects 

 it prefers are not abundant till late in the spring season. 

 There is another peculiarity worthy of notice; that it is, 

 * Lin. Trans., vol. xv. 



L 



