556 THE SHRIKE'S NEST IN THE FOREGROUND 



ability to the Shrike, and I consider the fact established, 

 though I have never myself heard a bird of this kind sing. 

 But I am very sceptical respecting his asserted powers of 

 mimicry j for the few allegations of mockery we possess seem 

 to be traceable to one or two sources, and to demand further 

 confirmation. 



But we complete the portraiture of no bird's life and char- 

 acter until we place the nest in the foreground of the picture, 

 with all its natural surroundings. Our two kinds of Shrikes, 

 indeed, breed wide apart, and in some of the little details of 

 their domestic economy they may differ, but the general course 

 of events is the same in either case " ccelum non animum mu- 

 tant", whether they be Loggerheads in South Carolina or 

 greater Butcher-birds in the northern wilderness. Knowing our 

 bird as we do now, we might suppose that he would make love 

 or war with equal assurance of success, and there is no doubt of 

 the fact that a Shrike is an impetuous and audacious wooer. 

 The main point is, however, that in operations of this kind he 

 has to deal with no shrinking, terrified Lark or Sparrow, glad 

 to make any terms with the tyrant, but with a bird who proves 

 to be his match in every particular. Set a Shrike to tame a 

 shrew pit a pirate against a virago and the whole neighbor- 

 hood may be congratulated when the stormy scene is over. 

 About the time the courtship grows a little monotonous, you 

 may look through the convenient thicket, where the saplings, 

 bushes, and weeds are grown up close together, or along yonder 

 hedgerow, with its lattice-work of creepers and greenbrier, to 

 find the nesting-place of the redoubtable couple. It will not be 

 hard to find, for the birds build low, and make a structure as 

 bulky in proportion to their size as a Hawk's nest. It is com- 

 monly built in a bush or sapling, within arms' reach from the 

 ground, the nest proper resting upon an extensive basement 

 of stout twigs, rather loosely laid together and bristling in all 

 directions. Upon such a support, the inner nest is built, of an 

 endless variety of soft, fibrous, vegetable substances, such as 

 grass-stems, weed tops, bark-strips, catkins, leaves, mosses, 

 lichens, &c., all matted together in such quantity that the 

 cavity within is greatly reduced by the thickness of the walls. 

 Some nests also contain feathers or fur felted in with the 

 rest of the materials. There seems to be a good deal of differ- 

 ence in the structure of the nest, not so much according to the 

 species, as to the climate. The northern-built nests are usually 



