648 THE SPIRIT OF THE SHRIKE 



make good my statements. The Shrike's food consists of such 

 birds, quadrupeds, and reptiles as he can capture and over- 

 power, together with insects, chiefly of the larger kinds, 

 and especially grasshoppers. These he pursues, attacks, and 

 destroys quite as a Hawk does ; and he has the very curious 

 habit of impaling their bodies upon thorns. 



Numberless illustrations of the spirit the Shrike displays 

 might be given. Though smaller in stature than the least of 

 our Hawks, he habitually destroys birds and other animals as 

 large as those upon which some Hawks subsist, and quite as 

 capable of resisting attack. Appropriating to himself sufl- 

 cient territory, where no other bird may safely intrude, he 

 becomes the terror of the neighborhood; and woe to the 

 unlucky Finch or Warbler that ventures to trespass on these 

 hunting-grounds! Like a veritable sentinel on guard, the 

 Shrike stands in wait upon his chosen post, ready to pounce 

 with unerring aim upon the iirst little bird that may dare to 

 rustle in the nearest bush. His impetuosity and temerity are 

 well displayed in the onslaught he sometimes makes upon 

 cage-birds hanging at our windows; and he has even been 

 known to enter an apartment, bolting through the open sash 

 with perfect recklessness. Dr. Brewer narrates the case of a 

 Shrike who dashed at a Canary without perceiving that the 

 window was closed. He struck the glass with all the momen- 

 tum of his impetuous flight, and fell to the ground, stunned 

 by the force of the blow.* He revived, however, and was 

 kept in confinement for some time, during which he continued 

 sullen and fearless, and greedily devoured small birds which 

 were offered him for food, though refusing to eat raw meat 

 of other kinds. Notwithstanding the protection that a cage 

 affords, Canaries are not seldom killed by the Shrike unless 

 speedily relieved from his attack. Sometimes they are so 

 terror-stricken that they fall fainting to the bottom of the 

 cage; but they oftener flutter and dash themselves against the 

 wires, till seized by the bird of prey, who scalps them, breaks 

 in their skull, or takes their heads off. The small birds that 



*A Bimilar instance of birds' inability to see glass is within my own 

 experience. Having on one occasion netted a large lot of Sparrows and 

 other small birds alive, I turned them loose in a vacant room. In their 

 terror and eagerness to escape, almost every one of them dashed against 

 the window in the course of a few moments, and successively fell stunned 

 and shivering to the floor — some to recover, others, more seriously hurt, 

 to die shortly. 



