SHRIKES. 163 



"begins from the moment of their issuing from the egg ; for no 

 birds can be more assiduous in their attentions to their offspring 

 than the old Shrikes ; feeding them most carefully, long after 

 they have left the nest. If taken early, they may be easily 

 tamed ; but their pugnacious disposition, which does not appear 

 in their own family circle when wild, is often fatally conspicuous 

 when they are confined in a cage. Mr. Montague, who kept 

 several, found that, at about the end of two months, violent 

 battles ensued, to such a degree, that he was obliged to separate 

 the survivors, and chain them in the manner Goldfinches are 

 frequently confined, when they became very docile, would 

 come when called, for the sake of a fly, of which they were 

 remarkably fond, though they would also eat mice or birds, 

 spitting, or fastening them, or pieces of raw flesh, on their 

 cage, in order to tear them ; disgorging the feathers, fur, and 

 bones, in pellets, like Hawks and Owls. 



Of two, thus kept for some time, the deaths were rathei 

 singular ; one choked itself by swallowing too large a quantity 

 of mouse-fur, which it could not disgorge, the other by 

 eating to such a degree, that it actually died of fat and reple- 

 tion ; expiring in Mr. Montague's hand in a fit, when in the 

 act of feeding on insects. In some countries, the young of 

 the species of Shrike found there are trained for hawking or 

 other purposes. 



In Russia they are sometimes used for the former amuse- 

 ment ; in Bengal they are taught to fight, a cruel diversion, 

 one being held up opposite to another, in the hand of a 

 man, to whose finger the bird is fastened by a string, sufficiently 

 long to enable it to fly at and peck its adversaries. By others 

 it is so well trained that, at a given signal, it will seize and 

 carry the small golden ornament usually worn on the head of 

 young Indian females, and convey it to its master. It will 

 also, with wonderful celerity, follow the descent of a ring, 

 pirposely thrown down a deep well, catching it in its fall, 

 and returning it to its owner. 



In parts of Holland and Germany it is used for catching 

 Hawks, in rather a curious way ; showing some other of its 



