234 



THjtfi CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



perch harbors a great many field-mice of dif- 

 ferent' kinds, according to the lay of the land, 

 and he has nothing to do but drop quietly down 

 upon these little innocents. At certain seasons 

 of the year, moreover, the fields swarm with 

 grasshoppers, of which the Shrike is very 

 fond, as he is also of spiders, beetles, cater- 

 pillars, and, in fact, almost any insect. In 

 July and August, "I have frequently seen 

 Shrikes skipping about in old weedy fields, 

 apparently amusing themselves | but I gen- 

 erally found, on watching them closely, that 

 they were hunting for the 'hoppers, some of 

 which they devoured then and, there, after 

 .beating oil their long hind legs, while others 

 were carried to some tree near by and duly 

 impaled. The tradition that the Shrike de- 

 stroys exactly nine victims a day, and which 

 is preserved in the name " Nine-killer," still 

 sometimes heard, is very ancient, and 1 do 

 not know to what source it may'be traced back. 

 It is a staple myth, which has been current 

 lor centuries in folk-lore, and may be found 

 related with gravity in some of the older 

 treatises. I should very'much like to learn its 

 source and the circumstances under which it 

 was first stamped with authority. The Shrike's 

 most notable trait, —the habit of keeping a 

 butcher-shop, where the bodies of the slain 

 are exposed, — has also been remarked ibr 

 many hundred years, and various ingenious 

 theories have been proposed to explain what 

 has been considered a wholly exceptional 

 and anomalous habit. When fully considered, 

 however, I think it will be found less singular 

 than it at first appears to lie. The Shrike is a 

 veritable " butcher bird," in as far as that 

 title may be given to a bird who kills what he 

 does not eat, and his operations in this line 

 have been made the subject of repeated 

 observations, so that we are in possession of 

 all the facts in the case. The birds, mice and 

 insects are sometimes impaled alive, and left 

 to perish miserably; sometimes their dead 

 bodies are similarly stuck upon the sharp 

 twigs. The shambles of the pitiless butcher 

 may be found in some thorny tree or bush, 

 which in the course of time presents a curious 

 spectacle, with the numerous creatures stick- 

 ing here and there. Quite a museum -of 

 anatomy is sometimes thus brought together 

 in one place, but as the Shrike is not partic- 

 ular about making a collection of curiosities, 

 we may recognize his work in single speci- 

 mens scattered anywhere about fields and 

 shrubbery. Some have surmised that the 



bodies are stuck up in this conspicuous way 

 as decoys, to allure other victims within reach. 

 This " bait theory " in its fulness is set forth 

 in the article noted below,* which may be 

 taken as a typical illustration ,of this way of 

 thinking. Mr. Heckewelder represents that 

 whereas the Shrike lives entirely upon mice 

 and small birds (which is not the case), and 

 whereas the grasshoppers are all stuck up in 

 natural attitudes as if they were alive (though 

 they are not so fixed, in fact), therefore this 

 is done to decoy birds that feed 'upon grass- 

 hoppers; for if this be not so, and it the 

 insects be stored up for future use, how long 

 would one or even two grasshoppers last a 

 Shrike? But it the intention be to seduce 

 little birds, then that number or half as many, 

 or fewer still, would be good bait all winter. 

 And so forth. Wilson, with his usual good 

 sense, has disposed of this theory, " pretty 

 fanciful," as he calls it, iii a rathar satirical 

 as well as practical way. He notes that 

 grasshoppers themselves are the favorite food 

 of the Shrike, and that they would make the 

 very poorest bait for -our small winter birds, 

 which are mostly granivorous; that there is 

 no necessity lor a strategem of such refinment 

 and cruelty, as the Shrike is abundantly able 

 to capture all the birds he wants in open chase; 

 and, finally, that the Crows and Jays may be 

 supposed with, equal probability to be laying 

 baits for mice and flying squirrels, when they 

 hoard up their corn. The bait theory may be 

 safely discarded. Another idea is, that the 

 Shrike avails himself of a thorn to secure his 

 prey whilst he is devouring it, just as a Hawk 

 or Owi would use his plaws for the same pur- 

 pose ; and that this has become such a habit 

 that the Shrike may spit, and then leave 

 untouched, the carcases he does not wish to 

 devour. Undoubtedly, the bird's feet and claws 

 are weak in comparison with his stout beak, 

 large head, and powerful muscles of the neck 

 and breast; but no <5ne can doubt the bird's 

 ability to hold his prey securely while he tears 

 it to pieces. Any one who has had a Shrike 

 scratch him should be satisfied of this. There 

 is another notion, that the Shrike impales his 

 victims in the excess of his cruelty, from 

 sheer love of indicting pain. But this ar- 

 gues a moral obliquity which we can ascribe 



*1799. Heckewelder. J. A letter from Mr. John 

 Heckewelder, to Dr. Barton, giving some account of the 

 remarkable instinct of a bird called the Nine-Killer 

 [Lanius borealis], {Trans. Amer. PHilos. Soc. iv. 1799, 

 pp. 124, 127.) 



