SEARCHING THE THORNS. 59 



as a nest robbed. Would she tell ? Should I 

 some day find the nest broken up or destroyed ? 

 Every morning, after that, I took my long, 

 lonely walk with misgivings, and did not feel 

 easy till I had seen the birds. 



One very notorious habit of the shrike I had 

 been especially desirous of investigating that 

 of impaling his prey. Judging from what has 

 been written about him, it must be a common 

 performance, his daily business, and I confidently 

 expected to see his thorn-tree adorned, from 

 roots to topmost twig, with grasshoppers and 

 beetles, not to mention small birds and animals. 

 Early in my visits to him, I looked the tree over 

 carefully, and, not content with my own eyes, 

 called in the aid of a friend. Moreover, we to- 

 gether made diligent search in the only other 

 thorn-tree in the vicinity, one spoken of above. 

 Not a sign could we discover in either tree of 

 any such use of a thorn, though thorns were 

 there in abundance. 



Again, one day I saw the bird very busy 

 about the barbed-wire fence, and remembering 

 to have seen the statement that shrikes in the 

 West, where thorn-trees are absent, impale 

 their grasshoppers on the barbs, I thought, 

 " Now I have surely caught you at it ! " I did 

 not disturb him, and he worked at that spot some 

 time. But when he had gone I hastened over to 



