^'84 GREY SHRIKE. 



long a resident in Russia, informed his friend Mr. 

 Coliinson, that the Great or Ash-coloured Butcher- 

 Bird is often taken by the bird-catchers in Russia, 

 and made tame. Mr. Bell had one given him, and 

 he fixed a sharpened stick or long skewer in the 

 wall, for the bird to roost on, with the point out- 

 ward: but the curiosity w^as the singular nature 

 of the bird^ for if he let fly a small bird, either 

 Linnet or Greenfinch, he would presently fly from 

 his perch, and seize the little bird in a particular 

 manner by the throat, which stops his breath, and 

 soon kills him. The next extraordinary thing 

 observable was his carrying the bird he had just 

 killed to his perch> and spitting it on the sharp- 

 pointed stick, drawing it on with his bill and 

 claws ^ and thus would serve one bird after another, 

 spitting them, and letting them hang by the neck 

 until he eat them at his leisure. The instinct of 

 spitting the dead birds is to enable him the better 

 to pull them to pieces; for he has not strength to 

 hold them, as a hawk does, in his claws, and pull 

 them with his bill; but being fast spitted, he has 

 strength enough to dissect them." j 

 Exclusive of birds, the Shrike preys on the 

 larger kind of Insects, spitting them in a similar 

 manner on thorns, and leaving them to devour at 

 leisure; and so tenacious is the bird of this its 

 natural habit, that, when confined in a cage, it 

 preserves the same propensity, sticking its food 

 against the wires of its cage. It is of a singularly 

 bold disposition, expelling Crows, Hawks, &c. 

 from its haunts, and not suffering them to ap- 



