PERCHING BIRDS. 47 



advantages also for the capture of its prey. It is a noisy 

 bird during the breeding season, its clamorous cries of 

 defiance on the approach of danger only exposing it to 

 greater notice. Amongst its eggs which I have taken I 

 have one pretty specimen, the ground of which is suf- 

 fused with a pale pink, and the encircling band of spots 

 at the larger end is a deep red. 



It has long been asserted that the shrikes fix insects 

 on thorns in order to decoy small birds within their 

 reach. This, though disputed by some, is believed in by 

 others, and I confess myself of the latter number. 



Kennie relates, in his Architecture of Birds, that a 

 friend of his expressing his doubts of this habit, he un- 

 dertook fi>r his own satisfaction, as well as his friend's, 

 to endeavour to ascertain the fact, and he soon found 

 within five miles of Lee, in Kent, half a dozen nests of 

 each species. " We discovered," he says, " that near 

 those nests large insects, such as humble-bees, and the 

 unfledged nestlings of small birds were frequently seen 

 stuck upon thorns. We did not succeed in seeing the 

 birds actually impaling their victims, but we ascertained 

 what we considered good proof of the fact ; for the 

 peasants, who had never heard of the story/' which he 

 says was first promulgated by Heckwelder, " all concurred 

 in affirming that the butcher-birds fix their prey upon 

 thorns, not, however, according to their belief, to allure 

 larger game, but to kill or secure what has been already 

 captured." 



The fact of the shrikes impaling on thorns the bodies 

 of small birds which they have killed has been too often 

 observed and too well authenticated to admit of doubt ; 

 but I should imagine that the mangled body of a hedge- 

 sparrow or yellow bunting would offer little that was 



