y6 GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD. 



In the Transactions of 'the American Philosophical Society, 

 vol. iv. p. 124, the reader may find a long letter on this subject 

 from Mr John Heckewelder of Bethlehem to Dr Barton, the 

 substance of which is as follows: — That on the 17th of Decem- 

 ber 1795, he (Mr Heckewelder) went to visit a young orchard 

 which had been planted a few weeks before, and was surprised 

 to observe on every one of the trees one, and on some two or 

 three grasshoppers, stuck down on the sharp thorny branches ; 

 that, on inquiring of his tenant the reason of this, he informed 

 him that they were stuck there by a small bird of prey, called 

 by the Germans, neuntodter (ninekiller), which caught and 

 stuck nine grasshoppers a day ; and he supposed, that, as the 

 bird itself never fed on grasshoppers, it must do it for pleasure. 

 Mr Heckewelder now recollected that one of these ninekillers 

 had, many years before, taken a favourite 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 intended 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," &c. 



This is, indeed, a very pretty fanciful theory, and would 

 entitle our bird to the epithet fowler, perhaps with more pro- 

 priety 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 ignorant that 

 grasshoppers were, in fact, the favourite food of this nine- 

 killer, but never once to have considered that grasshoppers 

 would be but a very insignificant and tasteless bait for our 



