118 Laniadce. 



slight limbs and feeble feet with the strong legs and sharp 

 claws of the Hawk tribe, so conducive to this purpose. Others 

 again assert that the insects so placed on the point of a thorn 

 are intended as baits to attract other victims, and this is the 

 opinion entertained generally, perhaps not without reason, by 

 the American naturalists (who have better opportunities of 

 studying their habits) ; for it is notorious that the shrikes will 

 often kill and impale, apparently from sheer wantonness, destroy- 

 ing many more victims than they can consume, and leaving 

 them transfixed on some thorny bush. They are extremely bold 

 and strong, and will often attack birds as large as themselves. 

 They are also very fierce, and when wounded will bite almost as 

 severely as a hawk. They are the terror of all small birds, for 

 whose nestlings they are ever on the watch, and these will some- 

 times band together to mob and drive them away, as they do 

 the owl on occasions. The name they bear, ' Laniadae/ sufficiently 

 describes the habits of the family, lanius signifying ' a butcher/ 

 from lanio, ' to cut or tear in pieces.' But, notwithstanding 

 their fierce, cruel disposition towards all within compass of their 

 strength in the furred, feathered, and insect world, towards their 

 own young they show a strong affection, remaining with them 

 the whole summer, until they all take their departure together, 

 and becoming very clamorous and excited if any real or fancied 

 danger threatens them. Their voices are also capable of great 

 variation, and they are said to sing melodiously, qualities we 

 should scarcely expect in so fierce a race. Moreover, they have 

 a remarkable power of imitating the notes of smaller birds, by 

 which means it is sometimes conjectured they allure them within 

 reach, to their destruction. 



I had the best opportunity of becoming familiar with the 

 Shrike family while creeping day by day in a boat up and down 

 the Nile in Nubia, when the sun shone his fiercest, and the sands 

 of the boundless desert came down on either hand to the very 

 banks of the river. Those banks were often fringed with the 

 thickest of shrubs, and especially the sont, or ' thorny acacia/ 

 and the ' camel thorns/ which were literally crowded with the 



