262 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



The Shrike. There are several species of Shrikes, the 

 Thick-headed Shrike, the Great Shrike, and the Red-backed 

 Shrike being among these. The Great Shrike belongs to both 

 Europe and America. In appearance it resembles the 

 Mocking Bird for which it is sometimes mistaken. It 

 preys upon mice, frogs, birds, grasshoppers and large insects, 

 killing and then impaling them upon thorns until such time 

 as it chooses to eat them. Its rapacity has earned for 

 it the name of "the Butcher Bird." According to Mr. 

 Bell these birds are kept tame in the houses in Russia. One 

 in his possession was furnished with a sharply pointed stick 

 for a perch, on the end of which it spitted any bird or animal 

 it caught. The Shrike believes in a well filled larder, and 

 does not proceed to eat his game until he has a good stock. 

 He is also known as the " Nine-killer " in America, from his 

 supposed preference for spitting that number at a forage. 



The Jay. We now come to the family of the Corvidae, 

 the crow family, which includes the Jays, the Magpies and 

 the Choughs. The Common Jay is indigenous in England 

 where it secludes itself in woody fastnesses, rarely exposing 

 itself in open country. It is a handsome bird about thirteen 

 inches long, with beautiful blue markings on its wings, but 

 is so shy that it is difficult to get a sight of it when at 

 liberty. Taken young it may be easily tamed, when it becomes 

 an amusing, if mischievous pet. It has considerable powers 

 of mimicry and can imitate the common sounds it hears with 

 wonderful exactness. The bleat of the lamb, the mew of the 

 cat, the neigh of the horse and the cries of other birds give 

 exercise to this faculty, and Bewick says : " We have heard 

 one imitate the sound made by the action of a saw, so exactly, 

 that though it was on a Sunday, we could hardly be persuaded 

 that the person who kept it had not a carpenter at work in 

 the house.'' Like many other birds it becomes bold in the 

 care and protection of its young. Knapp in his "Journals 

 of a Naturalist" says : 



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