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SHRIKES OR BUTCHER-BIRDS. 



Two species and one "geograpliical race,'' of Shrikes 

 are found in Pennsylvania. The name of Butcher- 

 bird is applied to these birds because of the habit 

 they have of impaling prey — insects, mice, small birds, 

 etc., — on thorns or sharp projecting twigs of bushes 

 or trees. The insects, mice or birds, which they catch 

 and impale were supposed, by some old writer, to 

 resemble the wares of the butcher on the market 

 shambles, hence the popular appellation. 



THE NORTHERN SHRIKE. 



This^ species, the largest of the three Shrikes occur- 

 ring in Pennsylvania, is found with us only as a winter 

 sojourner. During its residence in this region from 

 November to April, it frequents briery thickets, thorn 

 hedges, and grassy fields near trees and shrubbery. 

 The Northern Shrike breeds beyond the Northern 

 United States. This bird as well as the species called 

 Loggerhead Shrike, and its very intimate relation, 

 (specimens of which are so nearly alike the typical 

 Loggerhead that experts are unable at times to dis- 

 tinguish the "race" from the species) the "geographical 

 race," styled in common ornithological parlance, the 

 White rumped Shrike, are known, in some sections of 

 our State as the little "Gray Hawk." 



AN IMPROPER NAME. 



This name, of course, is highly inappropriate, as 

 Shrikes are not related to the Hawks. The name, 

 however, is given by farmers and gunners, who see 

 these birds catch small birds, mice, etc. During recent 

 years, or since the English Sparrow^ our imported bird 

 nuisance, has become so alarmingly abundant in the 

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