560 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



Fig. 463.- 



ancl larvae it eats. Only while the cherries and a few other fruits are ripe 

 does it do damage. At other times it feeds upon insects of all sorts, and 

 is especially fond of canker-worms. 



Different in character are the shrikes, or butcher-birds. The latter 

 name is especially appropriate for some of the larger forms, like the 

 great northern shrike, which each autumn comes down from the north to 

 set up his meat-market in our latitudes. It is a bold bird, with hooked bill, 



which, when no other bird is around, 

 feeds upon insects ; but if a mouse or 

 small bird happens near, this furnishes 

 the meal. They will frequently dart 

 into a cluster of our English sparrows, 

 kill two or three, and then proceed to 

 hang the victims upon the thorns of 



•Great northern shrike or butcher-bird Yar i ous bushes, 1USt as their human 

 (Uollurio oorealis). J 



namesakes hang the quarters of beef 

 or mutton in their markets. Some say that the butcher-bird does this so 

 that it may have tainted meat ; others, that it does it so as to have a stock 

 to tide over some time of scarcity. The latter is the more probable view, 

 especially if we add to it that the feet of the bird are very weak, and that 

 thus it can hold the prey while pulling it to pieces with its beak. Some- 

 times the bird kills far more than is necessary to answer its wants ; seem- 

 ingly from mere cruelty and wantonness. In the Old World the common 

 belief is that it kills nine animals a day, and hence it is called the ' nine- 

 killer.' The long series of vireos, or greenlets, are to be merely mentioned 

 as insect-eating allies of the butcher-birds, and some of them sing very 

 sweetly. They are very common. 



No more need be said of the industrious nut-hatches, which spend their 

 time, like woodpeckers, digging the insects from the lichens and the 

 crevices in the bark of trees. 



The wonderful bower-birds of Australia and New Guinea, on the other 

 hand, deserve more attention. The best-known species is that figured — the 

 satin bower-bird. In itself it is far from striking ; its colors are not gaudy, 

 its shape is far from elegant. The bowers which they construct are the 

 centre of attraction. These ' bowers ' are apparently intended for courting- 

 places, much like those of the argus pheasant already described, in purpose, 

 but far more elaborate. Tliis species makes an arbor-like gallery of twigs 

 through which the male and female course with the greatest glee. The 

 ground on which it stands-, and the arbor itself, are tastefully decorated 

 with all sorts of things, — shells, bones, leaves, feathers, and flowers. — 

 some of which are brought from considerable distances. Once arranged, 





