LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. 319 
“A good deal of the Shrike’s business, however, is neither brilliant nor romantic. 
The green sward below his perch hatbors a great many field mice of different kinds, 
according to the lay of the land, and he has nothing to do but drop quietly down upon 
these little innocents. At certain seasons of the year, moreover, the fields swarm with 
grasshoppers, of which the Shrike is very fond, as he is also of spiders, beetles, cater- 
pillars, and, in fact, almost any insect. In July and August I have frequently seen 
Shrikes skipping about in old weedy fields, apparently amusing themselves; but I 
generally found, on watching them closely, that they were hunting for the "hoppers, 
some of which they devoured then and there, after beating off their long hind legs, 
while others were carried to some tree near by and duly impaled..... 
“The Shrike is a veritable ‘Butcher-bird,’ in as far as that title may be given to a 
bird who kills what he does not eat, and his operations in this line have been made the 
subject of repeated observations, so that we are in possession of all the facts in the 
case. The birds, mice, and insects are sometimes impaled alive, and left to perish 
miserably; sometimes their dead bodies are similarly stuck upon the sharp twigs. The 
shambles of the pitiless butcher may be found in some thorny tree or bush, which in the 
course of time presents a curious spectacle, with the numerous creatures sticking here 
and there. Quite a museum of anatomy is sometimes thus brought together in one 
place, but as the Shrike is not particular about making a collection of curiosities, we 
may recognize his work in single specimens scattered anywhere about fields and 
shrubbery..... 
“There are two very different birds of this country which the Shrike resembles in 
the relative proportions of the wings and tail, as well as in the general conformation 
of the body. These are the Mockingbird and the Sharp-shinned Hawk, Accipiter 
velox. Now if we picture to ourselves a bird whose attitudes, movements, and 
especially whose mode of flight, may partake, on occasion, of those of either of the 
birds just named, we shall have no wrong idea of the varied actions of which the 
Shrike is capable. The close general resemblance of the Shrike to a Mockingbird is 
really remarkable. The two are of about the same size, shape, and color—in fa, it is 
not the easiest thing to tell them apart at a little distance, especially when they are 
flying. The similarity has long since been duly noted and commented upon; in fact, 
Swainson went so far as to make it the basis of a strong argument in favor of his 
fanciful quinarian theory of affinity. The mode of flight, then, of the Shrike, under 
ordinary circumstances, is necessarily much the same as that of a Mockingbird, being 
light, wayward, and even undulatory, when the bird is simply moving, about at his 
ease, or foraging for the humbler kinds of prey that contribute to his support. Yet even 
under these conditions there is a certain dash about it, giving hint of the spirit he can 
infuse into his actions when he calls his powers to their full display. Then, in the 
manner of the Hawk, his flight is strengthened, firmly sustained for long distances, and 
on occasion quickened at a prodigious rate; the climax of this exploiting being reached 
when he plunges headlong after his prey, hurtling like a very Hawk. He is said at 
times to hover in the air, just over his intended victim, as if taking aim before he stoops 
to his quarry; but this can hardly be a characteristic habit, or it would not have 
escaped my attention. I do not. remember to have ever witnessed it, though it need 
