160 SHRIKES. 



quality we can point out in the character of the Shrike genus ; 

 for in all other respects their whole lives seem to he spent in 

 dealing out death and terror to their fellows of the feathered 

 creation. A London bird-catcher, not long ago, caught one of 

 them. (Lanius excubitor) in his clap-net, in the act of pounc- 

 ing down upon a valuable decoy Linnet. At first he thought 

 himself fortunate in capturing so rare and valuable a prize ; 

 but in a very short time he was glad to get rid of it at any 

 price, for though it fed well on small birds and raw meat, and 

 seemed tolerably accustomed to confinement, the moment it 

 opened its mouth, and uttered its well-known note, his whole 

 collection of singing-birds were put to silence. All small 

 birds indeed have the strongest antipathy to the Shrike, either 

 betraying anger, or moaning, or expressing signs of fear when 

 it approaches their nests. They will also mob, attack, and 

 drive it away as they do the Owl, as if they were well aware 

 of its plundering propensities ; and with good reason, for it 

 will conceal itself in a bush, or perch itself on some upper 

 spray, to look out for prey : and no doubt avails itself of the 

 absence of the parent birds, in order to pillage their nursery 

 of nestlings; for a gamekeeper, who was in the habit of rearing 

 Pheasants, observed, that if any of his brood were weak or 

 sickly, a Shrike would occasionally contrive to draw them out 

 through the bars of the breeding-coops ; and a gentleman 

 who lived in a part of North America where several of them 

 harboured, actually discovered them taking his favourite 

 singing-birds out of the cages which hung by his window. 



Their usual food is however insects ; but whether birds, 

 mice, or insects, the same singular propensity has been re- 

 marked, that of frequently impaling the object they have 

 caught on a thorn or pointed stick. That it thus destroys, 

 when opportunity occurs, a far greater quantity of living 

 subjects than it can possibly consume, is unquestionable ; for 

 they have been seen to be all day long seizing insects, as if 

 actuated by a desire of destroying life, rather than procuring 

 a store of food. This apparently wanton cruelty may, how- 

 ever, be turned to good account ; for we have no doubt, that 

 it was by a species of this bird called the Collared Shrike 



