OR BUTCHER-BIRD. 193 



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 cap- 

 ture the winged insects, that constitute their princi- 

 pal 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 fi 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 carcass 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 approaching to learn the cause, 

 have frequently found that this butcher-bird occa- 

 sioned it. They will mob, attack, and drive it 



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