Medium-sized grayish, black-and-white birds, with hooked and hawk-like bill
for tearing the flesh of smaller birds,
field-mice, and large insects that they impale on thorns. Handsome, bold
birds, the terror of all small, feathered neighbors, not excluding the English
sparrow. They choose conspicuous perches when on the lookout for prey a
projecting or dead limb of a tree, the cupola of a house, the ridge-pole or
weather-vane of a barn, or a telegraph wire, from which to suddenly drop upon
a victim. Eyesight remarkable. Call-notes harsh and unmusical. Habits solitary
and wandering. The first-named species is resident during the colder months of
the year; the latter is a summer resident only north of Maryland.
Northern Shrike.
Loggerhead Shrike.