50 GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE, ©R BUTCHER BIRD. 
they appear to belong to two very different orders of birds; the former 
approaching, in its conformation, to that of the Accipitrine; the latter 
to those of the Pies; and, indeed, in his food and mamners he is as- 
similated to both. For though man has arranged and subdivided this 
numerous class of animals into separate tribes and families, yet nature 
has united these to each other by such nice gradations, and so inti- 
mately, that it is hardly possible to determine where one tribe ends, 
or the succeeding commences. We therefore find several eminent 
naturalists classing this genus of birds with the Accipitrine, others 
with the Pies. Like the former, he preys occasionally on other birds ; 
and, like the latter, on insects, particularly grasshoppers, which I 
believe to be his principal food; having at almost all times, even in 
winter, found them in his stomach. In the month of December, and 
while the country was deeply covered with snow, I shot one of these 
birds near the head waters of the Mohawk River, in the state of 
New York, the stomach of which was entirely filled with large black 
spiders. He was of a much purer white above, than any I have since 
met with; though evidently of the same species with the present; 
and I think it probable that the males become lighter colored as they 
advance in age, till the minute transverse lines of brown on the lower 
parts almost disappear. 
In his manners he has more resemblance to the Pies than to birds 
of prey, particularly in the habit of carrying off his surplus food, as 
if to hoard it for future exigencies; with this difference, that Crows, 
Jays, Magpies, &c., conceal theirs at random, in holes and crevices, 
where, perhaps, it is forgotten, or never again found; while the 
Butcher Bird sticks his on thorns and bushes, where it shrivels in the 
sun, and soon becomes equally useless to the hoarder. Both retain 
the same habits in a state of confinement, whatever the food may be 
that is presented to them. ; 
This habit of the Shrike, of seizing and impaling grasshoppers and 
other insects on thorns, has given rise to an opinion that he places 
their carcasses there by way of baits, to allure small birds to them, 
while he himself lies in ambush to surprise and destroy them. In 
this, however, they appear to allow him a greater portion of reason 
and contrivance than he seems entitled to, or than other circumstances 
will altogether warrant; for we find, that he not only serves grass- 
hoppers in this manner, but even small birds themselves, as those 
have assured me who have kept them in cages in this country, and 
amused themselves with their maneuvres. If so, we might as well 
suppose the farmer to be inviting Crows to his corn when he hangs 
up their carcasses around it, as the Butcher Bird to be decoying small 
birds by a display of the dead bodies of their comrades! 
In the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. iv. p. 
124, the reader may find a long letter on this subject from Mr. John 
Heckewelder, of Bethlehem, to Dr. Barton; the substance of which 
1s as follows: — That on the 17th of December, 1795, he ae Hecke- 
welder} went to visit « young orchard which had been planted a few 
weeks before, and was surprised to observe on every one of the trees 
one, and on some two and three grasshoppers, stuck down on the sharp, 
thorny branches; that, on inquiring of his tenant the reason of this, 
ne informed him, that they were stuck there by a small bird of prey, 
