THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 





to no bird, — if indeed any moral quality what- 

 ever can be discovered in their actions. It .is 

 true (bat a cat tortures a mouse, and seems to 

 delight in inflicting pain. I cannot but be 

 lieve, however, that the cat is unconscious of 

 the mouse's misery ; that what she enjoys is 

 not the suffering of her victim, put the exer- 

 cise other natural powers. Excessive destruc- 

 tiveness, as when cats or weasels kill more 

 antmalsthan they can devour, is very frequenl ; 

 but it implies neither cruelty (in a moral 

 sense) nor mere wantonness ; it is a legitimate 

 result ot their rapacious nature, and for the 

 rest, the animals may have a natural prefer- 

 ence for some part of their prey, as tbe blood 

 or brains, to secure enough of which they take 

 more lives than (hey would if they fed upon 

 the whole of the flesh. In the ease of the 

 Shrike, moreover, it is certainly the rule (hat 

 (he bodies are impaled after death, not while 

 still struggling in tbe clutches of the captor. 

 Analogy goes for something in natural history ; 

 and the analogy of the Shrikes' shambles to 

 the storehouses of various birds is too obvious 

 to have escaped attention. T think the right 

 clue to the curious habit, is thus found. 

 Many birds lay up stores of provisions, like 

 mice and squirrels. Among those of this 

 country, birds of the Corvine tribe, as Crows 

 and Jays, are conspicuous in this respect. 

 The' theivishness ' of the Raven and Magpie 

 in confinement is notorious ; but it is simply 

 the excessive development or perversion of 

 their habit of hoarding food that makes (hem 

 steal and hide away articles of no possible use 

 to them, such as jewellery and silverware. 

 The Californian Woodpecker offers another 

 notable instance of stowing up food, as it does 

 with infinite pains. I have seen branches of 

 trees studded thickly with acorns, each stuck 

 tightly by itself in a little bole bored by the 

 bird for its reception. 'In other instances, the 

 same bird has been known to insert acorns in 

 the natural crevices of wood. These facts 

 relate indeed only to the hoarding of fruits or 

 inanimate objects ; but we see a still closer 

 resemblance to the habit of the Shrikes in the 

 curious practice of the Red-headed Wood- 

 pecker, a versatile bird, one of whose singular 

 traits has just been told by Mr. II. B. Bailey, 

 of New York. This writer narrates* that a 

 correspondent of his observed a Woodpecker's 

 frequent visits to an old oak post, which on 

 ■examination was found to present a large 



* Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, iii. no. 2, April, 1878, p. 97 



crack, in which the bird had inserted abonl a 

 hundred live grasshoppers, and wedged them 

 in so firmly that they could nol escape. 9 

 farmers showed him other posts which had 

 been put to the same purpose. This 

 certainly a layjng-up ol stores for future u-e. 

 for the writer states that the Woodpecker 

 later began to cat hi- heard, and that at length 

 only a few shrivelled dead 'hoppers were left. 

 Wilson has observed, furthermore, that Jays 

 and Shrike's retain similar habits in confine- 

 ment; the .lay filling every -cam and chink- 

 in his cage with grain and bread-crumbs, and 

 the Shrike c nailing •* meat, insects and the 

 bodies of such birds as maj he thrown to him. 

 I have had my doubts in this matter: and 

 still, after observing Shrikes carefully in 

 various parts oi the country, musl admit thai 

 the matter is not finally narrowed down to a 

 simple question of hoardiug. Too many 

 bodies are stuck up, too promiscuously, and 

 too few are made use oi afterward, for u- to 

 consider it simply as a piece ol the bird's 

 thrift. I suppose the habit of impaling, 

 considered simply as such, and without refer- 

 ence to ulterior purposes subserved, may have 

 been gradually acquired as the result of the 

 Shrike's physical organization— the relatively 

 little force of grasping with his feet he 

 possesses, in comparison with the power of 

 his beak. The talons of a Hawk, forexample, 

 are very effective instruments, not onlyfor 

 striking and killing prey, but also for holding 

 it while it is torn by the beak. The Shrike 

 has much less prehensile power; it strikes 

 with the beak, and devours as best it may, 

 A Nuthatch, for example, will take an acorn 

 to a craclc in the hark', and wedge it there 

 while it hammers away at it with the bill. 

 Such a habit ot fastening its prey having been 

 acquired, as something entirely unconnected 

 with the storing up of provisions, may then 

 have been turned to account as a moans ot 

 securing its prey for future use. and thus 

 become the usual way i<\' making a hoard. 

 It is certain, however, that the Shrike makes 

 no great use of his larder.- and that he some- 

 times impales and sometimes not. apparently 

 at his caprice, lie is just as likely to eat a 

 grasshopper as to stick one. lie spits his vic- 

 tims as often when food is plenty as when it is 

 scarce ; and the majority ol the bodies gibbet- 

 ed are left to wither and be Mown away, or be 

 eaten up l>\ the hugs. On one occasion, when 

 I watched a Shrike closely tor some time. I 

 saw him impale a number ot' grasshoppers in 



