Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/127

 a large nest in the fork of a cedar or apple tree; composed of stalks of grass, coarse without, and fine within. Here it lays three or four eggs, of a bluish white, marked with dots of black and purple.

(Shrikes.) Among the most interesting phenomena of Zoology are those very numerous cases, in which some strongly marked peculiarities of structure or habit in one group are reproduced in another, widely removed from it in the totality of its organization. An instance of this analogy is now before us. The Shrikes are undoubtedly Passerine birds in their whole structure, yet no one can look upon the beak of one of these birds without being strongly reminded of that of the Falconidæ, in its strength, its arched form, its strongly hooked point, and in the distinct tooth which precedes the usual notch of the Dentinstrostral type. And this structure of the beak is accompanied by a carnivorous appetite, a rapacious cruelty, and a courage that are truly Accipitrine, and have induced their association with the birds of prey, both by unscientific and scientific observers. The Shrikes not only devour the larger and more powerful insects, but also pursue, attack, and overcome small birds and quadrupeds, seize them in their beak or claws, and bearing them to some station near, tear them to pieces with their toothed and crooked beak. Mr. Martin mentions having seen a species from