January Twenty-ninth
After a deep fall of snow, the Northern shrike, or butcher-bird, is forced into the villages and towns for his food. Dashing into a flock of English sparrows, he snatches one and carries it back to the country to be eaten at his leisure. He is the bird that impales small birds, mice, and large insects on barbed-wire fences, or thorn bushes, after his stomach has been filled, and hence his name.