WITH A BUFFON INTERLUDE 



BIRDS are no respecters of persons, 

 and if I were called upon to pick 

 out the most independent and least diplo- 

 matic bird of them all, the shrike would 

 be first choice without hesitation. No 

 matter of what species, it is the shrike 

 against the field, at any odds. He is a 

 self-contained little fellow, with a military 

 air, wearing his dress uniform in an un- 

 varying mood of almost stolid complacence. 

 An Ishmaelite of the strictest breed, he tilts 

 against all avian comers with a view to 

 murder pure and simple. 



It is very easy to generalize about birds, 



as the poets and many of the ornithologists 



have always done. But when one tries to 



get at the details, there comes the rub. 



ii6 



