188 THE SHRIKE, 



us by its croaking, unmusical voice from the summit 

 of some tree. Its nest is Jarge and ill concealed ; 

 and during the season of incubation the male bird 

 is particularly vigilant and uneasy at any approach 

 towards his sitting mate, though often by his cla- 

 morous anxiety he betrays it and her to every 

 bird-nesting boy. The female, when the eggs are 

 hatched, unites her vociferations with those of the 

 male, and facilitates the detection of the brood. 

 Both parents are very assiduous in their attentions 

 to their offspring, feeding them long after they 

 have left the nest, for the young appear to be 

 heavy, inactive birds, and little able to capture 

 the winged insects, that constitute their principal 

 food. I could never observe that this bird de- 

 stroyed others smaller than itself, or even fed upon 

 flesh. I have hung up dead young birds, and even 

 parts of them, near their nests, but never found 

 that they were touched by the shrike. Yet it ap- 

 pears that it must be a butcher too, and that the 

 name u lanius," bestowed on it by Gesner two hun- 

 dred and fifty years ago, was not lightly given. 

 My neighbour's gamekeeper kills it as a bird of 

 prey, and tells me he has known it draw the weak 

 young pheasants through the bars of the breeding- 

 coops ; and others have assured me that they have 

 killed them when banqueting on the carcase of some 

 little bird they had captured. All small birds have 

 an antipathy to the shrike, betray anger, and utter 

 the moan of danger, when it approaches their nests. I 

 have often heard this signal of distress, and cautiously 



