84 
LANIUS EXCUBITOR. 
to have been unacquainted that grasshoppers were, 
fact, the favourite food of this nine killer, but never 
once to have considered, that grasshoppei-s would b® 
but a very insigniheant and tasteless bait for our winter 
bii’ds, whi(di are chiefly those of the finch kind, tlnd 
feed almost exclusively on hard seeds and gravel ; and 
among whom five hundred grnsshoi)pers might be stue*^ 
up on trees and bushes, and remain there untouched bf 
any of them for ever. Besides, where is his necessity 
of having recourse to such refined stratagems, when hr 
can, at any time, seize upon small birds by mere fore* 
of flight y I have seen him, in an open field, dai-t aft®'' 
one of our small sparrows with the rapidity of n** 
arrow, and kill it almost instantly. Mr William Bartrain 
long ago informed me, that one of these shrikes had 
the temerity to pursue a snow bird (F. Hudsonico) 
into an open cage, which stood in the garden; aiidi 
hefoi'e they could arrive to its assistance, had already 
strangled and scalped it, though lie lost his liberty by 
the exploit. In short, 1 am of opinion, that his resold 
tion and activity are amply suflicient to enable him 
procure these small birds whenever he wants the»'> 
which, I believe, is never but when hard pressed b.V 
necessity, and a deficiency of his favourite insects ; aod 
that the crow or the blue jay may, with the saiuj 
probability, he supposed to be layiiig'baits for mice ai'd 
flying squin-els, when they are hoarding their Indiii® 
corn, as he for birds, while thus disposing of the exub^ 
ranee of his favourite food. Both the fonuer and tb' 
latter retain the same habits in a state of confinemcJ’*’ 
the one filling every seam and chink of his cage 'vit® 
grain, crumbs of bread, &c., and the other sticking uP’ 
not only insects, but flesh, and the bodies of such bit®* 
as are thrown in to him, on nails or shaiqiened stivb* 
fixed up for the purpose. Nor, say others, is tb'^ 
practice of the shi-ike difficult to be accounted Ibf' 
Nature has given to this bird a strong, sharp, ai)d> 
powerful heaJi, a broad head, and great strength in fb^ 
muscles of his neck ; but his legs, feet, and daws, a*'®’ 
