164 BIRDS OF THE PLAINS 



and there. I have seen this operation repeated scores 

 of times. I, therefore, think I am justified in suggesting 

 that the habit of keeping a larder is probably restricted 

 to the larger species of shrike, and that these only im- 

 pale their victim when there is still something of it left 

 over, after they have eaten so much that for the time 

 being they cannot possibly stow away any more. 

 Jerdon, I notice, makes no mention of ever having seen 

 a butcher bird behave in the orthodox manner. Colonel 

 Cunningham, who is a very close observer of bird life, 

 says, as the result of a long sojourn in India, that 

 shrikes " do not seem very often to impale their victims, 

 probably because these are usually easily broken up ; 

 but when they have secured a lizard they sometimes 

 fix it down upon a stout thorn so as to have a point of 

 resistance whilst working at the hard, tough skin." If 

 any who read these lines have seen a shrike's larder, 

 either in India or in England, I should esteem it a great 

 favour if they would furnish me with some account of it. 

 Let me not be mistaken. I do not say that butcher 

 birds never keep larders, for they undoubtedly do ; of 

 this I am satisfied. Thus Mr. E. H. Aitken says of the 

 shrike : " It sits upright on the top of a bush or low 

 tree, commanding a good expanse of open, grassy land, 

 and watches for anything which it may be able to sur- 

 prise and murder a large grasshopper, a small lizard, or 

 a creeping field mouse. Sometimes it sees a possible 

 chance in a flock of small birds absorbed in searching 

 for grass seeds. Then it slips from its watch-tower and, 

 gliding softly down, pops into the midst of them with- 

 out warning, and forgetting all about the true nature of 



