THE SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER-BIRD. 143 



now and then, when he can get nothing else; and 

 he impales what he does not eat on some thorn. 

 Probably the other birds have caught him at 

 this naughty business a very few times, and " once 

 detected, always suspected." They have never 

 forgiven him. 



So, perhaps, this butcher has come honestly 

 by his name. But it is not so very bad to be a 

 butcher ! Let us learn some lessons from his 

 merciful way of doing his work. The shrike kills 

 its victim by a blow, or by impaling it on a thorn. 

 In either case it is a quick death. Sometimes he 

 kills it before hanging it. If he does hang it on a 

 thorn before giving the fatal stroke, he impales it 

 by the back of the skull or neck. There is no 

 playing before killing, as with the common cat. 



Why the shrike hangs its prey on thorns or 

 weed-stalks or barbed-wire fences, no one knows. 

 He seldom returns to eat it. You may find the 

 little ghosts of grasshoppers and crickets and mice 

 arid other creatures swinging in the wind as dry 

 as a bone. Indeed, they are often nothing but 

 dry bones with just enough skin to hold the bones 

 together. It is well known that tree-squirrels, 

 and jays, and woodpeckers do not return and eat 

 all the food they stow away in secret places. Per- 

 haps all these little creatures have a vague idea 



