ORDER PASSERES. 48B 



within reach. The male and female shrikes unite, fly forth, 

 attack them with loud cries, and pursue them with such fury, 

 that they often take to flight without daring to return. Even 

 kites, buzzardsj and ravens will not willingly attack the shrike. 

 They are habitually insectivorous, and also pursue small birds. 

 They will cast themselves on thrushes, blackbirds, &c., when 

 these last are taken in a snare. When they have seized a bird 

 they open the cranium, devour the brain, deplume the body, 

 and tear it piecemeal. 



The prudence to foresee and provide for the wants of the 

 future, is another of their qualities. That they may not fail 

 of those insects which form their subsistence, and which only 

 make their appearance at a determinate epoch, some shrikes 

 form kinds of magazines, not in the hollows of trees, nor in the 

 earth, but in the open air. They stick their superabundant 

 prey on thorns, where they may find it again in the hour of need. 



Falconers have taken advantasre of the character of these 

 birds, and occasionally trained them to the chase. Francis the 

 First of France, according to the account of Turner, was 

 accustomed to hunt with a tame shrike, which used to speak, 

 and return upon the hand. The Swedish hunters^ availing 

 themselves of the habit of the Gray Shrike of uttering a pecu- 

 liar sort of cry at the approach of a hawk, make use of it to 

 discover the birds of prey which this kind of cry announces. 



Though we have said that the shrike genus is extended over 

 the entire globe, we believe South America must be excepted. 

 The South American birds which have been called shrikes 

 belong to other divisions, and it would appear that this genus 

 does not pass beyond the Floridas, Louisiana, and the North 

 of Mexico. 



As a complete enumeration of species is made in the text 

 and additions, we shall only notice here those which have any 

 peculiar points of interest. 



The Cinereous Shrike (Lanius Excubitor) is spread over all 

 Europe, very common in France, though not so frequently 

 found in Enoland, It remains in woods and wilds durinsr the 



