88 FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



living food from their earliest moments. As Prior 

 long ago put it : 



" Was ever Tartar fierce and cruel 

 Upon the strength of water-gruel ? 

 But how restrain his rage and force 

 When first he kills, then eats, his horse ?" 



What the butcher-bird requires in his place 

 of residence, then, is, above all things, easy access 

 to warm sandstone or limestone tracts, with plenty 

 of insects, lizards, mice, and small birds ; he also 

 needs an open common to hunt over, bushes and 

 trees on which to perch at watch, and clumps of 

 thorn-bearing shrubs to provide him with a larder. 

 There he builds his rude nest, one of the roughest 

 and most inartistic I know ; and there the mother 

 brings up her young in her own wicked fashion. 

 But though a rather shy bird, the shrike does not 

 wholly fear or shun civilisation ; for the rich insect 

 population of our garden often attracts the wicked 

 pair ; and in July and August, when flies are rife 

 among the fruit-trees, they will bring 'their young 

 brood into the currant and gooseberry beds, and 

 teach the young idea how to shoot in the manner 

 proper to so carnivorous a species. 



As a matter of evolution, the shrike's position 

 is a very interesting one. For he is not exactly 

 a bird of prey rcertainly he does not belong to 

 the hawk and eagle order. His near relations are 

 all mere insect-eating birds ; but he has gone a 

 little beyond them in his carnivorous habits, by 

 adding mice, birds, and lizards to his diet. His 



