SHRIKES. 
191 
of prey we have just noticed. In the form of their 
beak, too, there is a close resemblance, it being 
short, arched, and furnished with a strong projecting 
tooth near the tip, which is acute, and very analo- 
gous to the true Falcons. But they at the same 
time differ so essentially in other points, that some 
modern naturalists have removed them into a dis- 
tinct class. Their limbs, for example, are very dif- 
ferent from the Eagle and Hawk tribe, the toes 
being slender, and the claws comparatively weak. 
But although slender, their pressure is nevertheless 
powerful, and the bite they can inflict with their 
bill extremely severe, and capable of drawing blood 
from a man’s finger in an instant. The uses of the 
separate qualities of the claws and bill are seen 
from the mode in which they seize their prey ; if, 
for instance, it is an insect, they pounce down, 
secure it with their sharp notched bill, and then 
press it under their feet to eat it. But when 
coming down on a bird or a mouse, which they have 
pursued for some distance, they settle their feet on the 
head of the object pursued, at the same moment 
that they strike it with their bill, and in this man- 
ner one was seen carried a very considerable distance 
by a dove, on which it had fastened itself by its 
beak and feet. They differ again from the Eagles 
and Falcons, respecting the treatment of their 
young. The Falcon tribe invariably driving them 
off to shift for themselves, as soon as they are full 
grown, and capable of getting their own living. 
Whereas the Shrikes, although cruel to a degree in 
their general habits, show a marked attachment, and 
of long continuance, to their young; and are, 
