THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 
359 
while around it are stuck humble bees, cocktail beetles, ground 
beetles, and a variety of other insects, each impaled upon a 
thorn, and forming admirable indications to the nest-hunter. 
Sometimes, but seldom, young birds are impaled instead of 
insects, and in such cases they are always callow nestlings, and 
are fixed by a thorn run between the skin and the flesh, instead 
of being pierced through the body, as is the method employed 
with insects. 
There is a popular idea that the bird always has nine im- 
paled creatures at hand, and that when it eats one it catches 
another, and with it replaces the one which has been eaten. 
In consequence of this notion, which prevails through several 
countries, the bird is called Nine-killer. The generic name, 
Enneoctonus, is composed of two Greek words which have a 
similar signification. So strongly is this idea held by some 
persons, that I have seen a treatise upon instinct, where the 
Shrike was gravely produced as an example of arithmetical 
powers possessed by birds. These theories generally fail when 
confronted by facts. I have seen numberless Shrikes’ nests ; 
and, though in some cases there may have been nine impaled 
animals, in some there were more and in others less. 
The nest itself is neatly, though loosely, built of roots, moss, 
wool, and vegetable fibres, and is lined with hair. I have mostly 
noticed it about five feet from the ground ; and, although it is 
said to be closely hidden, have always found it a peculiarly 
conspicuous nest. 
