NORTHERN SHRIKE. l6l 



The propensity for thus singularly securing its prey is also 

 practised on birds, which it impales in the same manner, and 

 afterwards tears them to pieces at leisure. 



From his attempts to imitate the notes of other small birds, 

 in Canada and some parts of New England he is sometimes 

 called a Mocking Bird. His usual note, like that of the follow- 

 ing species, resembles the discordant creaking of a sign-board 

 hinge ; and my friend Mr. Brown has heard one mimicking the 

 quacking of his Ducks, so that they answered to him as to a 

 decoy fowl. They also imitate other birds, and I have been 

 informed that they sing pretty well themselves at times, or 

 rather chatter, and mimic the songs of other birds, as if with a 

 view to entice them into sight, for the purpose of making them 

 their prey. This fondness for imitation, as in the Pies, may 

 however be merely the result of caprice. 



So complete at times is the resemblance between the 

 Mocking Bird {^Mimus poUyglottus) and this species of Lanius, 

 that it is difficult to distinguish them apart. I have lately 

 heard one (November loth, 1833), employed in a low and soft 

 warble resembling that of the Song Sparrow at the present 

 season, and immediately after his note changed to that of the 

 Catbird. Like that pre-eminent minstrel, the Orpheus, he 

 also mounts to the topmost spray of some lofty tree to display 

 his deceptive talent and mislead the small birds so as to bring 

 them within his reach. His attitudes are also light and airy, 

 and his graceful, flowing tail is kept in fantastic motion. 



The parents and their brood move in company in quest of 

 their subsistence, and remain together the whole season. The 

 male boldly attacks even the Hawk or the Eagle in their de- 

 fence, and with such fury that they generally decline the onset. 



The Butcher Bird breeds from about latitude 50° northward, mi- 

 grating in winter south to the Potomac and Ohio valleys. 



Dr. Arthur Chadbourne, of Cambridge, reports that he has heard 

 a female sing, and describes her as " an unusually fine singer and 

 quite a mimic." 



VOL. I. — II 



