THE SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD. 91 



founded the habits of the two. Its general color is the 

 same 'they both have the white bar across the wings, and 

 the difference consists mainly in the outline of the form 

 which in the shrike expresses compactness and strength, with 

 short wings and tail, while in the mocking bird it expresses 

 airiness, with graceful length and elegance of plumage but 

 the difference cannot be easily distinguished when the shrike 

 is on the wing. There is another point of resemblance to 

 the mocking bird, which is still more remarkable. Audubon 

 asserts roundly, that the shrike can imitate the cries of birds, 

 such as sparrows and other little people, so perfectly, that 

 not only are we deceived, but the sparrows themselves, 

 thinking it is one of their own kith and kin screaming in the 

 claws of the hawk, flock thither in sympathetic terror, from 

 their coverts, when the cunning mocker pounces upon one 

 of them sure enough. 



Audubon in his Biography of Birds, says : 

 " This valiant little warrior possesses the faculty of imi- 

 tating the notes of other birds, especially such as are indica- 

 tive of pain. Thus it will often mimic the cries of sparrows 

 and other small birds, so as to make you believe you hear 

 them screaming in the claws of a hawk ; and I strongly sus- 

 pect this is done for the purpose of inducing others to come 

 out from their coverts to the rescue of their suffering breth- 

 ren. On several occasions I have seen it in the act of 

 screaming in this manner, when it would suddenly dart from 

 its perch into a thicket, from which there would immediately 

 issue the real cries of a bird on which it had seized. On the 

 banks of the Mississippi, I saw one which for several days in 

 succession had regularly taken its stand on the top of a tall 

 tree, where it from time to time imitated the cries of the 

 swamp and song-sparrows, and shortly afterwards would 

 pitch clown like a hawk, with its wings close to its body, 

 seldom failing to obtain the object of its pursuit, which it 

 would sometimes follow even through the briars aud bram- 

 bles among which it had sought refuge. When unable to 



