THE SHRIKE'S LARDER. 



invisible seat, not hovering and casting a tell- 

 tale shadow like the hawk, but waiting his 

 chance unseen under cover of the thicket. 

 His favourite food, indeed, consists of bees 

 and other soft-bodied insects ; these he 

 generally eats at once, returning forthwith 

 to his perch and his peering. But if he 

 catches any bigger prey, such as a frog, 

 a field-mouse, a tomtit, or a partridge chick, 

 he flies off with it to the larder, and there 

 spears the wretched victim on a stout sharp 

 spine, to devour it at his leisure. Even 

 beetles and dragon-flies he will sometimes 

 keep in stock, especially if his appetite is 

 assuaged for the moment. Nevertheless, 

 the butcher-bird is in the main an insect- 

 eater ; he is commonest on warm sandy 

 soils, like that of these Surrey moors, where 

 bumble-bees and cockchafers abound, and 

 enable him to make an easy living. Indeed, 

 all beasts and birds are mostly regulated 

 in their distribution by the abundance or 

 scarcity of their food or prey. Shrikes 



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