THE SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD. 
91 
founded the habits of the two. Its general color is the 
same — 'they both have the white bar across the wings, and 
the difference consists mainly in the outline of the form — 
which in the shrike expresses compactness and strength, with 
short wings and tail, while in the mocking bird it expresses 
airiness, with graceful length and elegance of plumage — but 
the difference cannot be easily distinguished when the shrike 
is on the wing. There is another point of resemblance to 
the mocking bird, which is still more remarkable. Audubon 
asserts roundly, that the shrike can imitate the cries of birds, 
such as sparrows and other little people, so perfectly^ that 
not only are we deceived, but the sparrows themselves, 
thinking it is one of their own kith and kin screaming in the 
claws of the hawk, flock thither in sympathetic terror, from 
their coverts, when the cunning mocker pounces upon one 
of them sure enough. 
Audubon in his Biography of Birds, says : 
" This valiant little warrior possesses the faculty of imi- 
tating the notes of other birds, especially such as are indica- 
tive of pain. Thus it will often mimic the cries of sparrows 
and other small birds, so as to make you believe you hear 
them screaming in the claws of a hawk ; and I strongly sus- 
pect this is done for the purpose of inducing others to come 
out from their coverts to the rescue of their suffering breth- 
ren. On several occasions I have seen it in the act of 
screaming in this manner, when it would suddenly dart from 
its perch into a thicket, from which there would immediately 
issue the real cries of a bird on which it had seized. On the 
banks of the Mississippi, I saw one which for several days in 
succession had regularly taken its stand on the top of a tall 
tree, where it from time to time imitated the cries of the 
swamp and song-sparrows, and shortly afterwards would 
pitch down like a hawk, with its wings close to its body, 
seldom failing to obtain the object of its pursuit, which it 
would sometimes follow even through the briars and bram- 
bles among which it had sought refuge. When unable to 
