Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-11-10


 the wood.-A Born Thief as We'll as Murderer-Thc Half Breed Idea
 No bird native to this country is so little known and surely none has such striking habits of life as the shrize, or butcher bird. He is q member of fam fly comprising some 200 species, of which only one well defined subfamily is resident in North America. Bold. daring, handsome, he is ut once the braggart and the bean of the woods. At little distance a southerner would readily mistake him for the mocking bird
 His bluish gray plumaGc, tail tipped with white and broad black patch across each eye give him trim, jaunty air quite pleasing to the eye, but, alas. T dreaded object to smaller and weaker birds. His habit t is northern North America, and though he breeds in the high ground of New England and New York he grows more common after the Canadian limo is crossed.
 The shrike is born tyrant. Not con- tent with killing and devouring all i'm sects large enough to attract his fancy, he attacks snakes, mOles, mice and small birds whenever opportunity offers. His disposition is as unlovable at home as abroad, for seldom are two or more seen together but they are engaged in an ug- ly family quarrel. They are truly car nivorous, and except for certain weak. nesses of bono and muscle would rank as true birds of prey.
 There is one strange. uncanny char i-ff ,l, .l, woodland bully from all known birds Naturalists have watched il, studied it, pondered over it and written long pages of inexplicable explanations of it, and common people have doubted ill their superstition or ignorance whether it was the doing of n bird or n demon in bird form. Today it remains as deep mys- tery as it was 100 years ago.
 This is the puzzle: The butcher bird in his riotous love of killing stays many more victims than he has any possible use for. He seems to do it for the mere fun of the thing. Instead of leaving the dead. however. he carries them one by ono to- some thorny hedge or tree and there impales them in all sorts of fan tastic positions ill the branches. It gives one start to come out of piece of 1 woods when gunning and see thorn tree laden with q ghastly crop of To- Custs, toads, sparrows, grass snakes, liz | ards and Chipmunks.
 If tho shrikc ever returned to feed l upon his grim hoard, there would be an explanation of his conduct, and he would be credited with the epicurcan taste oi q thoroughbred vulture who likes things "a bit gany.' But such is not the ! case. The weird fruit hangs for days upon the limbs. and if hawks or crows do not find and steal it it will rot until | only few tiny white skeletons remain to tell of the massacre.
 Comparatively few dwellers in tho backwoods know this ecccntricity of tn, butcher bird, and hence arise many GU rious and apparently well autheuticat ed stories os trees that catch birds il their branches and of storms that rair ed down toads and lizards. so that tn' trees were full of them.
 The butcher bird is n born thief a we'll as n murderer and often meets hi death while hopelcssly cndcavOring t' | kill and carry off tame pct bird iron | q cage or to rob hunters cabin O fresh meat. Any tidhit he finds he wil StCIls even II bAlAN Au lA'ileA AN HUH d locust bough hard by. The Canadian fur traders and trappcrs dcSpiSo hin heartily and never lose n chance to kill him The half breeds call him Whisky Joe" and claim he is half drunk all the time. and hence does these foolisl things.
 Hc will spy out the most carefully hidden trap and always manage to pur loin the bait without being caught. Tn, wild country north of the great lakes i, a favorito haunt of these butchers. ano the Indians who hunt and sell furs tc the Hudson Bay company complain bit terly of the dcprcdations of Whisky | Joe.
 The shriko builds bulky. somcwha elaborate nest of heavy sticks below and upon this foundation warm cover ing of bark. leaves ana grass is laid. l is usually in some low tree, and tn, eggs, which are somewhat smaller thaI n pigeons, are decidedly pretty. The, are of grayish green mOttlcd, spcCkc' and scratched with reddish brown. Tn young ncstlings begin their education by wrangling and fighting as soon q matched, in which amiable diversion their fond parents set them striking an' perpetual examples. New York World