SHRIKES. 
193 
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 remarked, 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, however, be turned to good account, 
for we have no doubt, that it was by a species of 
this bird, called the Collared-shrike, ( Lanius col- 
lar u r,) that the following check was given to a 
plague of locusts. The account was sent from the 
Cape of Good Hope, in 1829. During the Spring 
of that year, the locusts abounded to such a degree 
on the southern coasts of Africa, that the whole 
country was completely ravaged, and the most 
serious apprehensions were entertained for any re- 
newal of vegetation which the rains might promote, 
when the locust-birds made their appearance in vast 
flocks, and successfully interfered. The writer adds, 
that their mode of attacking, and destroying, and 
impaling these destructive insects, was quite extra- 
ordinary, and far surpassed all human efforts. 
VOL. i. o 
