THE BUTCHER-BIRD. 81 



Favourite food. 



he is glad to make off, and seldom returns to the 

 charge. In these disputes, they generally prove 

 victorious, though it sometimes happens that 

 they fall to the ground with the bird they have 

 so fiercely fixed upon, and the combat terminates 

 with the destruction of both. 



The favourite food of the butcher-bird consists 

 of small birds; which it seizes by the throat, and 

 strangles in an instant. And it is asserted by 

 the most undoubted authorities, that when it has 

 killed the bird or insect, it fixes them upon some 

 neighbouring thorn, and when thus spitted, pulls 

 them to pieces with its bill. Even when confined 

 in a cage, it will often treat its food in the same 

 manner, by sticking it against the wires before it 

 devours it. 



Mr. Bell, who travelled from Moscow, through 

 Siberia, to Pekin, informs us, that in Russia 

 these birds are often taken by the bird-catchers, 

 an'' made tame. He had one of them given to 

 him, which he taught to perch on a sharpened 

 stick fixed in the wall of his apartment. When- 

 ever a small bird was let loose in the room, the 

 butcher-bird would immediately fly from his 

 perch, and seize it by the throat in such a man- 

 ner as to suffocate it almost in a moment. He 

 would then carry it to his perch, and spit it on 

 the end, which was sharpened for the purpose; 

 drawing it on carefully and forcibly with his bill 

 and claws. If several birds were given him, he 

 would use them all, one after another, in the 



VOL. III. NO. XVH. L 



