18i DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



or another tree. To be sure, it was a downward progres- 

 sion in every case, but the angle of declination was but 

 slight, and the alighting point evidently predetermined, 

 and the body's motion was under control of the bird's will 

 as much as though the wings were in use. That two or 

 three, or even half a dozen strokes of the wings should 

 impart to the bird's body sufficient impetus to progress 

 fully one hundred feet is incredible ; yet there appears to 

 be no other explanation of the fact. I believe no other 

 bird, except the falcons, can exercise this power to the 

 same degree ; and even with them it is always a steeply 

 sloping course, and not one, as with the shrike, but a few 

 degrees from a horizontal line. 



As the winter wore away the shrike became weaker 

 and quite tame. I offered him bits of raw beef, which he 

 gladly devoured, but would never permit of my near ap- 

 proach. At first I placed these bits of beef on sharpened 

 twigs, just as the bird is accustomed to impale small 

 birds and insects, but those that I so placed the shrike 

 would not eat. He did not even notice them, apparently. 

 When, on the other hand, I laid the food on dead leaves 

 in exposed positions, he would fly down and dart at each 

 piece as though it was alive, and then and there devour it ; 

 or, seizing it in his beak fly back, to his perch in the quince 

 bush, and swallow the morsel after having held it for 

 several minutes. 



His efforts to fly when upon the ground were very 

 curious. Having almost no use of his injured legs, the 

 shrike would throw himself backward until his body was 

 nearly perpendicular, and then, by a quick vibration of the 

 wings and an impetuous forward movement of the body, 

 it would be uplifted sufficiently to enable the bird to fly 

 as usual. Occasionally the first and even the second at- 

 tempt would prove failures, and the bird would become 

 so exhausted that a rest for several minutes was necessary. 



