218 OUR XATIYE SONGSTERS. 



the helpless creatiu'es which are its \dctims. The 

 strike has a singular habit of fixing its slaughtered 

 animals on a thorn, or on the forked branch of a 

 tree, and so hanging them up, as a butcher might 

 do the animals destined for sale ; hence its familiar 

 name of butcher-bird. A naturalist who kept this 

 species in confinement, observed that when a bird 

 was given to it, it always broke the skull, and 

 usually ate the head first. Sometimes it held the 

 bird in its claws, and pulled it to pieces as a hawk 

 would do; though it seemed to prefer forcing a 

 portion of it through the wires, and then pulling 

 at it, always hanging up on the sides of its cage 

 any part which remained after its meal. , It would 

 often eat three small birds in a day. 



Our shrike has a number of familiar names, and 

 many of those, both of our own and other lands, 

 refer to its habits. Thus it is called the Mountain 

 Magpie, the Murdering Pie, and the Shreek, in 

 various parts of this island. Willoughby says, that 

 in the north of England it is termed Weirangle ; 

 and the Germans also call it WerJcangel, or Wark- 

 angel. This was thought by Gesner to be the 

 corruption of the word Wurchangel, which, rendered 

 literally, signifies a sufibcating angel. The Ger- 



