GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD. 51 
called by the: Germans, euntoedter, (Nine-killer,) which caught and 
stuck nine grasshoppers a day; and he supposed that, as the bird it- 
self never fed on grasshoppers, it must do it for pleasure. Mr. Heck- 
-ewelder now recollected, that one of those Nine-killers had, many 
years before, taken a favorite bird of his out of his cage at the window ; 
since which, he had paid particular attention to it; and being perfectly 
satisfied that it lived entirely on mice and small birds, and, moreover, 
observing the grasshoppers on the trees all fixed in natural positions, 
as if alive, he began to conjecture that this was done to decoy such 
small birds as feed on these insects to the spot, that he might have an 
opportunity of devouring them. “If it were true,” says he, “that 
this little hawk had stuck them up for himself, how long would he be 
in feeding on one or two hundred grasshoppers? But if it be in- 
tended to seduce the smaller birds to feed on these insects, in order 
to have an opportunity of catching them, that number, or even one 
half, or less, may be a good bait all winter,” é&c. 
This is, indeed, a very pretty, fanciful theory, and would entitle our 
bird to the epithet fowler, perhaps with more propriety than lanius, or 
butcher ; but, notwithstanding the attention which Mr. Heckewelder 
professes to have paid to this bird, he appears not only to have been 
ata that grasshoppers were, in fact, the favorite food of this 
ine-killer, but never once to have considered, that grasshoppers 
would be but a very insignificant and tasteless bait for our winter 
birds, which are chiefly those of the Finch kind, that feed almost ex- 
clusively on hard seeds and_gravel; and among whom five hundred 
grasshoppers might be stuck up on trees and bushes, and remain there 
untouched by any of them forever.: Besides, where is his necessity 
of having recourse to such refined stratagems, when he can, at any 
time, seize upon small birds by mere force of flight? I have.seen 
him, in an open field, dart after one of our small Sparrows with the 
rapidity of an arrow, and kill it almost instantly. Mr. William Bar- 
tram long ago informed me, that one of these Shrikes had the temerity 
to pursue a Snow Bird (F. Hudsonia) into an open cage, which stood 
in the garden; and, before they could arrive to its assistance, had 
already strangled and scalped it, though he lost his liberty by the ex- 
ploit. In.short, I am of opinion, that his resolution and activity are 
amply sufficient to enable him to procure these small birds whenever 
he wants them, which, I believe, is never but when hard pressed by 
necessity, and a deficiency of his. favorite insects; and that the Crow 
‘or the Blue Jay may, with the same probability, be supposed to be 
‘laying baits for mice and flying squirrels, when they are hoarding 
their Indian corn,.as he for birds, while thus disposing of the exuber- 
ance of his favorite food. Both the former and the latter retain the 
same habits in a state of confinement; the one filling every seam and 
chink of his cage with grain, crumbs of bread,‘&c.,; and the other 
sticking up, not only insects, but flesh, and the bodies of such birds 
as are thrown in to him, on nails-or sharpened sticks fixed up for the 
purpose. Nor, say others, is this practice of the Shrike difficult to be 
accounted for. Nature has given to this bird a strong, sharp, and 
powerful beak, a broad head, and great strength in the muscles of his 
neck; but his legs, feet, and claws are by no means proportionably 
