SHRIKE. PASSERES. LANIUS. 141 
are probably driven upon our eastern shores by adverse 
winds. 
By most of the British ornithologists, it has been men- 
tioned as arriving in spring, and departing in autumn, which 
would imply that it breeds in this country, and is a regular 
periodical visitant. From this view of its habits, I must be 
permitted to dissent, all the specimens that have come under 
my observation having been killed in the months of Novem- 
ber, December, and January ; nor have I ever seen or heard 
of an individual during the summer months. _ It is a solitary 
bird, being most frequently found single; though I have, 
more than once, met with a male and female together.—It Food. 
feeds upon insects, as well as small birds, and the smallest 
class of animals, which it destroys by strangulation. After 
having killed its prey, it transfixes it upon a thorn, and then 
tears it in pieces with its bill. This singular process is used 
with all its food. I had the gratification of witnessing this 
operation of the shrike upon a hedge accentor (Accentor mo- 
dularis), which it had just killed; and the skin of which, still 
attached to the thorn, is now in my possession. In this in- 
stance, after killing the bird, it hovered, with the prey in its 
bill, for a short time over the hedge, apparently occupied in 
selecting a thorn fit for its purpose. Upon disturbing it, and 
advancing to the spot, I found the accentor firmly fixed by 
the tendons of the wing at the selected twig. I have met 
with the remains of a mouse in the stomach of a shrike, and 
Monracu mentions one in which he found a shrew (Sorex 
arenarius). When confined in a cage, this bird still evinces 
the same propensity for fixing its food, and, if a sharp-pointed 
stick or thorn is not left for that purpose, it will invariably fas- 
ten it to the wires before commencing its repast. The flight 
of the shrike is interrupted, being performed by jerks, and, 
when perched, the tail is kept in constant motion. Its voice 
is capable of variation, and it possesses a power of imitating 
the notes of many of the smaller passeres. Wooded and in- 
closed situations are its favourite haunts.—It builds in trees Nest, &c. 
