Shrike

a family of birds comprising about two hundred, chiefly Old World species. Two are found in America. The northern shrike, or butcher-bird, clad in gray, with black wings and tail and white under parts, breeds in the far north and winters southward as far as Virginia. It is about ten inches long and has a stout, hooked, hawk-like bill. Its habit is to sit aloft on a dead branch, watching for grasshoppers, mice, and small birds. It is a special foe of the English sparrow. The shrike is noticeable for a habit of hanging its food till needed on a thorn, in the fork of a twig, or on the barb of a wire fence. The loggerhead shrike with black upper parts is an inch shorter and breeds from the Canadian line southward. Like the preceding species, it combines the habits of a hawk and a flycatcher. It nests in thorny hedges and thickets at the height of one's head or higher. Bradford Torrey offers the following observation with evident satisfaction:

The bravado of the butcher-bird is great, but it is not unlimited. I saw him, one day, shuffling along a branch in a very nervous, unshrikely fashion, and was at a loss to account for his unusual demeanor till I caught sight of a low-flying hawk sweeping over the tree. Every creature, no matter how brave, has some other creature to be afraid of: otherwise, how would the world get on?