HAWKING. 
of liis. Beneath the scorching African sun the gibbeted birds 
are scorched up before decomposition can set in, and it is no 
uncommon thing for the traveller to find a bush festooned with 
ready-dried specimens of the small birds of the country. 
The butcher-bird can sing, a fact at which, without knowing 
why, one cannot fail to be surprised. It does seem strange 
that such a murderous little bandit should have its savage beak 
backed by a musical throat. It does sing, however. A writer 
in the “ Naturalist ” informs us that he was first led to discover 
a bird of this species by hearing notes very much like those of 
a stonechat, yet not quite familiar to him, of which the utterer, 
to his surprise, was a butcher-bird ; on continuing to listen, 
these notes were soon exchanged for others of a softer and more 
melodious character, not, however, prolonged into a continuous 
song or strain. Bechstein says : “ The note of the butcher-bird 
resembles the guvr gui/r of the lark ; like the nutcracker, it can 
imitate the different notes, but not the songs, of other birds. 
Nothing is more agreeable than its owtl warbling, which much 
resembles the whistling of the grey parrot ; its throat being, 
at the same time, expanded like that of the green frog. It is 
a great pity that it often spoils the beautiful melody of its song 
with some harsh and discordant notes. The female sings also:” 
While agreeing with so renowned an authority as Bechstein, 
that the introduction of harsh shrieks is calculated to mar 
melody, it seems to me that many sounds are more lovely 
than the “ whistling of a grey parrot.” 
The falconers of the Middle Ages named the great shrike the 
“ mattagasse,” and, accordingto an ancient work on field sports, 
was used occasionally, in regular hawking fashion, for the cap- 
ture of small birds. The language in the said old book is as 
quaint as the spelling, and the reader shall have both as I find 
them : — 
“ Though the matagasse bee a hawke of none account, or 
price, neyther with us in any use ; yet, neverthelesse, for that 
in my division I made recitall of his name, according to the 
French author, from whence I collected sundries of these points 
and documents appertaining to falconrie, I think it not beside 
my purpose briefly heere to describe unto you, though I must 
needs confesse that where the hawke is of so slender value the 
definition or rather description of his nature and name must 
be thought of no great regard. Her feeding is upon rattes, 
squirrells, and lizards, and sometime upon certaine birds she 
doth use to prey, whome she doth intrappe and deceive by flight, 
264 
