] 60 
SHRIKES. 
quality we can point out in the character of the Shrike genus ; 
for in all other respects their whole lives seem to he spent in 
dealing out death and terror to their fellows of the feathered 
creation. A London bird-catcher, not long ago, caught one of 
them (Lanins excubitor ) in his clap-net, in the act of pounc- 
ing down upon a valuable decoy Linnet. At first he thought 
himself fortunate in capturing so rare and valuable a prize ; 
hut in a very short time he was glad to get rid of it at any 
price, for though it fed well on small birds and raw meat, and 
seemed tolerably accustomed to confinement, the moment it 
opened its mouth, and uttered its well-known note, his whole 
collection of singing birds were put to silence. All small 
birds indeed have the strongest antipathy to the Shrike, either 
betraying anger, or moaning, or expressing signs of fear when 
it approaches their nests. They will also mob, attack, and 
drive it away as they do the Owl, as if they were well aware 
of its plundering propensities ; and with good reason, for it 
will conceal itself in a bush, or perch itself on some upper 
spray, to look out for prey : and no doubt avails itself of the 
absence of the parent birds, in order to pillage their nursery 
of nestlings; for a gamekeeper, who was in the habit of rearing 
Pheasants, observed, that if any of his brood were weak or 
sickly, a Shrike would occasionally contrive to draw them out 
through the bars of the breeding-coops; and a gentleman 
who lived in a part of North America where several of them 
harboured, actually discovered them taking his favourite 
singing-birds out of the cages which hung by his window. 
Their usual food is however insects ; but whether birds, 
mice, or insects, the same singular propensity has been re- 
marked, that of frequently impaling the object they have 
caught on a thorn or pointed stick. That it thus destroys, 
when opportunity occurs, a far greater quantity of living 
subjects than it can possibly consume, is unquestionable ; for 
they have been seen to be all day long seizing insects, as if 
actuated by a desire of destroying life, rather than procuring 
a store of food. This apparently wanton cruelty may, how- 
ever, be turned to good account ; for we have no doubt, that 
it was by a species of this bird called the Collared Shrike 
