GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER-BIRD. 259 
summer abode in the thickest forests in Pennsylvania, and 
New England. The nest is said to be large and compact, 
in the fork of a small tree, and sometimes in an apple- 
tree, composed externally of dried grass, with whitish moss, 
and well lined with feathers. The eggs are about 6, of a 
pale cinereous white, thickly marked at the greater end 
with spots and streaks of rufous. The period of sitting 
is about 15 days. The young appear early in June, or 
the latter end of May. 
The principal food of this species is large insects, such 
as grasshoppers, crickets, and spiders. With the surplus 
of the former, as well as small birds, he disposes in a very 
singular manner, by impaling them upon thorns, as if 
thus providing securely for a future supply of provision. 
In the abundance however, which surrounds him in the 
ample store-house of nature, he soon loses sight of this 
needless and sportive economy, and like the thievish Pie 
and Jay, he suffers his forgotten store to remain drying and 
bleaching in the elements till no longer palatable or diges- 
tible to their hoarder. As this little Butcher, like his more 
common European representative, preys upon birds, these 
impaled grasshoppers were imagined to be lures to at- 
tract his victims, but his courage and rapacity render such 
snares both useless and improbable, as he has been 
known, with the temerity of a Falcon, to follow a bird 
in to an open cage sooner than lose his quarry. Mr. 
J. Brown, of Cambridge, informs me, that one of these birds 
had the boldness to attack two Canaries, in a cage, sus- 
pended one fine winter’s day at the window. The poor 
songsters in their fears fluttered to the side of the cage, 
and one of them thrust its head through the bars of his 
prison, at this instant the wily Butcher tore off his head, 
and left the body dead in the cage. The cause of the 
accident seemed wholly mysterious, till, on the following 
