SHRIKES
“All sorts of absurd stories have been made up about the cuckoo and its
curious habits, and thus fable has added to the actual facts, which are
in themselves strange enough. Even to-day there are in circulation any
number of fairy tales on the subject of this bird. I will tell you a
few of them in order to put you on your guard against these childish
notions.
“First, they say cuckoos change their nature twice a year, being
cuckoos in the spring and sparrow-hawks the rest of the year. According
to this account, the bird comes to us from some distant country in
April in its first form on the back of a kite that is so accommodating
as to serve it as a mount. This mode of travel is adopted by the cuckoo
to spare its own wings, still too weak to carry it. Undoubtedly the
bird’s plumage—which, as I have told you, resembles in its brown
crosswise stripes on the breast the plumage of certain birds of
prey—has fostered this popular belief in the changing of the cuckoo
into a sparrow-hawk and of the sparrow-hawk into a cuckoo. People have
allowed themselves to be deceived by this variegated dress. When the
bird sings in April and May it is a cuckoo because it has the cuckoo’s
cry; but when it falls silent in summer it becomes a sparrow-hawk
because it has the plumage of one. So the cuckoo is changed into a
sparrow-hawk, and when spring comes again the sparrow-hawk is changed
into a cuckoo once more. For thousands and thousands of years this
nonsense has been believed by most people.
“The cuckoo is a migratory bird: it remains with us from April to
September, but departs for Africa at the approach of winter. To explain
its reappearance in the spring some one invented the story of its being
carried on the back of a kite; but I need not assure you that there is
not a word of truth in this fairy tale. The cuckoo is always a cuckoo,
and it returns from warmer climes on its own wings, as does the
swallow. Another legend is that the cuckoo turns into a toad.”
“Isn’t that because the cuckoo, when it is young and before it has any
feathers, is very ugly and looks like a toad?” asked Jules.
“Exactly. And, finally, the bird is accused of discharging on plants a
fatal saliva that breeds insects. The truth of the matter is that a
tiny insect, light green and shaped somewhat like a grasshopper, is in
the habit of pricking the stems of plants with its sucker to make the
sap run; and this sap presents the appearance of a white foam that
looks like saliva. The insect takes its position in the midst of this
cool and foamy froth to shelter itself from the heat of the sun and to
drink at its leisure. There you have the real facts in the case.
‘Cuckoo-spit’ is the name popularly given to the insect. It does little
harm to plants. In reality, then, the supposed harmful saliva of the
cuckoo is merely an ingenious means employed by an inoffensive little
creature to keep itself cool. Many other ridiculous stories are told
about the cuckoo, but it would be only a waste of time to dwell on
them. Let us get on.
“We have already had occasion several times to speak of our doubtful
helpers, those co-workers whose valuable services are offset by certain
grave offenses. You have just seen how that devourer of hairy
caterpillars, the cuckoo, is guilty of the blackest ingratitude toward
the warbler, its nurse, in brutally throwing out of their nest the
little birds which would have become model caterpillar-destroyers. That
is a rather high price to pay for the destruction of oak-tree
processionary caterpillars. To finish the list of these birds whose
conduct deserves, from an agricultural point of view, both praise and
blame, I will tell you about the shrike, a great insect-destroyer, but
also a barbarous slaughterer of small birds.
“Despite their diminutive size—the largest shrike being hardly as big
as a thrush—these birds have the fierce boldness of the most powerful
birds of prey. They will even pursue any falcon that ventures near
their nest. Their diet consists chiefly of large insects; but
unfortunately they also pounce on little birds, greedily devouring
their brains and afterward tearing their flesh to shreds and eating it
too. For this life of rapine they have a strong hooked beak, toothed
toward the tip of the upper mandible, and powerful talons ending in
sharp nails that resemble in miniature the claws of birds of prey. We
have in this country four species of shrikes.
“The common shrike is of the size of a blackbird, and its plumage is
ashy gray above and white underneath. A wide black stripe, starting
from the beak, continues around the eye and runs down over the cheek.
The wings and tail are black, ornamented with white. The bird likes to
perch on lofty tree-tops, where it keeps repeating its cry of truee,
truee, in a piercing tone. In flying from tree to tree it looks as if
it were going to alight on the ground; but presently it rises again,
describing a graceful curve in the air. Its food consists chiefly of
field-mice and large beetles, but occasionally of small birds which it
catches on the wing. It likes to build its nest in tangled and thorny
hedges, and lays from four to six eggs, reddish in color and encircled
toward the large end by a ring of brown spots. Similar rings are found
placed in the same way on the eggs of our various other shrikes and
furnish a distinctive and easily recognizable characteristic mark.
“The black-headed shrike can be recognized, as its name indicates, by
the wide black stripe that encircles the forehead. This bird is of
about the lark’s size and has the plumage of the common shrike except
on the stomach, which is reddish. The eggs, white tinted with red, have
the ring at the large end formed of numerous little spots, red, brown,
or violet in color.
“The red shrike is slightly smaller. The top of its head and the back
of its neck are bright red, the stomach and rump white. Otherwise the
plumage is like that of the two species just described.
“The red-backed shrike is the smallest and the best-known of our
shrikes. It is ash color on the head and rump, chestnut red on the
back, and light red underneath. A black ring encircles the eye, the
throat is white, and the large tail-feathers and wing-feathers are
black.
“These last three shrikes that I have named can at will imitate the
various cries of small birds, and they make use of this talent, it is
said, to lure them to their destruction. The red-backed shrike is
especially expert in this. It first hides in some dense shrubbery and
then imitates the song of whatever species it hears chirping in the
neighborhood. The imprudent ones come at its call, which they think
proceeds from one of their own kind, and the red-backed shrike pounces
on them as soon as it has them well within reach. But this trick
succeeds only with inexperienced little birds, the older ones knowing
it and taking care not to be deceived. The captured bird is skinned
before being eaten, and that is the origin of the French name
(écorcheur, flayer) given to this fourth species of shrike. The others,
however, share this habit. As they lack the faculty of rolling the
feathers into a ball and throwing them up after digestion, as do the
hornless owls, these birds take the precaution to prepare the game
beforehand by tearing off the skin in shreds. It is a quick way of
plucking their victim. Notwithstanding its talent in imitating the
calls of other birds, the red-backed shrike is not so lucky as to make
dupes every day. In case of failure the shrike contents itself with
common mice, field-mice, grasshoppers, June-bugs, and fat beetles. Such
is the shrike’s passion for beetles that when it has eaten all it can
it continues to hunt them just for the fun of hunting; and, not knowing
what to do with the captured insects, it impales them on the thorns of
bushes. Perhaps that is its way of stocking its larder with food and
letting it acquire a strong flavor like venison, a flavor much to its
taste.
“The other shrikes also have this mania for laying up reserves of
beetles stuck on thorns, reserves which the bird does not always come
back for, and which often dry up on the spot without being touched. But
this waste of game is of little consequence, as the final result is
always to our advantage: we are delivered from a multitude of foes by
these eager hunters. When they do us such service shall we count it an
unpardonable crime that they sometimes allow themselves the pleasure of
feasting on little birds? For my part I should be very reluctant to do
so. I pity with all my heart the poor little bird that foolishly lets
itself be caught by the shrike; but I also have a lively sympathy for
the beautiful tree which, if bereft of its defenders, would soon be
given over to the worms and honeycombed with holes all packed with
filth.
“The red-backed shrike frequents groves, orchards, and gardens. It
nests in thick hedges, sometimes in the interlacing branches of
apple-trees. Its eggs are white tinged with red. The ring at the large
end is composed of brown, gray, and greenish spots. In building its
nest the bird uses a kind of everlasting that grows abundantly in the
fields and has stems all covered with a white cotton-like fluff. The
inside of the nest is furnished with a couch of little twigs and fine
rootlets interwoven and comfortably overlaid with wool, down, and
horsehair. The other shrikes use in their nests the same materials,
especially the everlasting with its white fluff.”