OR BUTCHER-BIRD. 
135 
feeding them long after they have left the nest ; for the 
young appear to be heavy, inactive birds, and little able 
to capture the winged insects, that constitute their 
principal food. I could never observe that this bird 
destroyed others smaller than itself, or even fed upon 
flesh. I have hung up dead young birds, and even parts 
of them, near their nests ; but never found that they 
were touched by the shrike. Yet it appears that it 
must be a butcher too ; and that the name “ lanius ,” 
bestowed on it by Gesner two hundred and fifty years 
ago, was not lightly given. My neighbor’s gamekeeper 
kills it as a bird of prey ; and tells me he has known it 
draw the weak young pheasants through the bars of the 
breeding coops ; and others have assured me that they 
have killed them when banqueting on the carcass of 
some little bird they had captured. All small birds 
have an antipathy to the shrike, betray anger, and utter 
the moan of danger, when it approaches their nest. I 
have often heard this signal of distress, and, cautiously 
approaching to learn the cause, have frequently found 
that this butcher-bird occasioned it. They will mob, 
attack, and drive it away, as they do the owl, as if fully 
acquainted with its plundering propensities. Linnasus 
attached to it the trivial epithet “ excubitor ,” a sentinel ; 
a very apposite appellation, as this bird seldom conceals 
itself in a bush, but sits perched upon some upper 
spray, or in an open situation, heedful of danger, or 
watching for its prey. This shrike must be most mis- 
chievously inclined, if not a predatory bird. — May 23d : 
— A pair of robins have young ones in a bank near my 
dwelling: the anxiety and vociferation of the poir 
things have three times this day called my attention to 
the cause of their distress, and each time have I seen 
this bird watching near the place, or stealing away upon 
my approach ; and then the tumult of the parents sub- 
sided ; but had they not experienced injury, or been 
aware that it was meditated, all this terror and outcry 
would not have been excited. 
Many birds are arranged in our British ornithology 
not known as permanent inhabitants, but which have 
occasionally visited our shores during inclement seasons. 
