AMERICAN BUTCHER BIRD. 83 
it, as the butcher bird to be decoying' small 
•'Rs by a display of the dead bodies of their comrades ! 
^ tn the Transactions of the American Philosophical 
vol. iy, p. 124, the reader may find a long 
on this subject from John Heckevi'elder, of Beth- 
fiiU ***’ Barton; the siibstauco of which is as 
(M T**' — December, 1795, he 
iiari*^ ^^®ckewelder) w'ent to visit a young orchard which 
n been planted a few weeks before, and was surprised 
obsgp^g on every one of the trees one, and on some 
0 and three grasshoppers, stuck down on the sharp 
,.^*’ny branches; that, on inquiring of his tenant the 
^j^ason of this, he intbrraed him, that they were stuck 
^®*'e by a small bird of prey, called, by the Germans, 
Ui'^^toecffer, (nine killer,) wliicb caught and stuck 
bit? ^asshoppers a-day ; and he supposed, that as the 
IJl a Itself never fed on grasshoppers, it must do it for 
of Heckewelder now recollected, that one 
'■''nse nine killers had, many years heforc, taken a 
8i^®“rite bird of his out of his cage at the window ; 
bgj®® "'hich, he had paid particular attention to it ; and 
perfectly satisfied that it lived entirely on mice 
birds, and, moreover, observing the grass- 
ali^P^i’s on the trees all fixed in natural positions, as if 
j bo began to conjecture that this was done to 
small birds as feed on these insects to the 
the ’ be might have an opportunity of devouring 
true,” says he, “ that this little 
be 1 ^ stuck them up for himself, how long would 
^Ut V-*' ^®®'iing on one or two hundred grasshoppers ? 
On *1 it be intended to seduce the smaller birds to feed 
®atcb- ’“sects, in order to have an opportunity of 
njnj'.'“g them, that number, or even one-half, or less, 
J be a good bait all winter,” &c. 
n-Q, ,1® is, indeed, a very pretty fanciful theory, and 
Wjjn'i entitle our bird to the epithet foxclcr, perhaps 
not- propriety than lanius, or butcher! but, 
pf /‘tbstanding the attention which Mr Heckewelder 
esses to have paid to this bird, he appears not only 
