We talk of beautiful instincts and beautiful adaptations, so I suppose we may also talk of hateful ones; and this instinct of the shrike’s is decidedly hateful. Yet such conduct is the rule in the world of animals: each species thinks only of its own comfort and pleasure; none takes the slightest heed18 of the pains of others. As Tennyson put it long ago—
“Nature is one with rapine, a harm no preacher can heal;
The mayfly is torn by the swallow, the sparrow spear’d by the shrike,
And the whole little wood where I sit is a world of plunder19 and prey.”
Assuredly no creature is worse in this respect than our red-backed butcher-bird. Yet he is a handsome wretch20, for all that, especially in his beautiful and delicate spring plumage, when he first returns to us from his African winter quarters—chestnut and reddish brown above, melting into dainty grey-blue about the head and neck, not unrelieved by bold patches of pure black and pure white on the tail and forehead. Moreover, strange to say, he is an accomplished21 musician. But there is an ugly look about him, none the less, for all his fine song and all his fine feathers. He has a cruel, falcon-like expression of face; and any one who has ever seen him engaged in calmly spiking22 a harvest-mouse or a frog on a thick spine23 of blackthorn, without the faintest regard to his helpless victim’s writhing24, cannot fail to recognize the evil element in his eye, whenever he gives one the rare chance of viewing him.
Old-fashioned ornithologists used to think the shrikes were related to the birds of prey; and, indeed, they do somewhat resemble the smaller hawks25 in external features. But the likeness27 is purely28 superficial and adaptive—curved bill, strong talons29, hard bristles30 on the beak31, the keen eye of the hunter: it is the kind of similarity that must always exist among animals whose mode of life is closely similar. We know nowadays that structure depends upon habit, not habit upon structure. If you take to earning your living by rapine, you will acquire certain traits of strength and keenness inevitable32 in predatory forms; and that is why the shrikes, which are related by descent to the wrens33 and thrushes, have grown to resemble in external conformation the sparrowhawks and kestrels.
On the rare occasions when you do catch sight of a shrike, he is usually seated, half in ambush, on some perch34 in a tall hawthorn35, or even openly on the telegraph-wires that cross a patch of likely hunting country. There he peers about and watches with his keen hazel eyes till mouse, frog, or lizard, bee, beetle5, or dragon-fly, stirs in the meadow beneath him. Then, swift as thought, he swoops36 down upon his quarry37 from his invisible seat, not hovering38 and casting a telltale shadow like the hawk26, but waiting his chance unseen under cover of the thicket39. His favourite food, indeed, consists of bees and other soft-bodied insects; these he generally eats at once, returning forthwith to his perch and his peering. But if he catches any bigger prey, such as a frog, a field-mouse, a tomtit, or a partridge chick, he flies off with it to the larder, and there spears the wretched victim on a stout sharp spine, to devour40 it at his leisure. Even beetles and dragon-flies he will sometimes keep in stock, especially if his appetite is assuaged41 for the moment. Nevertheless, the butcher-bird is in the main an insect-eater; he is commonest on warm sandy soils, like that of these Surrey moors42, where bumble-bees and cockchafers abound43, and enable him to make an easy living. Indeed, all beasts and birds are mostly regulated in their distribution by the abundance or scarcity44 of their food or prey. Shrikes have, doubtless, no native objection to cold thick clay, as such; but bees being rare on moist soils, and field-mice or lizards45 still rarer, the shrike learns to avoid damp, chilly46 bottoms as herbivores avoid a dry desert country.

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1
larder
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n.食物贮藏室,食品橱 | |
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2
impaled
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钉在尖桩上( impale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3
hoard
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n./v.窖藏,贮存,囤积 | |
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4
beetles
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n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 ) | |
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5
beetle
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n.甲虫,近视眼的人 | |
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6
robins
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n.知更鸟,鸫( robin的名词复数 );(签名者不分先后,以避免受责的)圆形签名抗议书(或请愿书) | |
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7
swoop
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n.俯冲,攫取;v.抓取,突然袭击 | |
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8
ambush
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n.埋伏(地点);伏兵;v.埋伏;伏击 | |
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9
killing
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n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
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10
prey
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n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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11
deliberately
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adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地 | |
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13
wriggling
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v.扭动,蠕动,蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 );(使身体某一部位)扭动;耍滑不做,逃避(应做的事等);蠕蠕 | |
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14
twigs
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细枝,嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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15
lizard
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n.蜥蜴,壁虎 | |
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16
tenacity
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n.坚韧 | |
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17
ribs
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n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 );(船或屋顶等的)肋拱;肋骨状的东西;(织物的)凸条花纹 | |
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18
heed
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v.注意,留意;n.注意,留心 | |
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19
plunder
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vt.劫掠财物,掠夺;n.劫掠物,赃物;劫掠 | |
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20
wretch
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n.可怜的人,不幸的人;卑鄙的人 | |
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21
accomplished
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adj.有才艺的;有造诣的;达到了的 | |
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22
spiking
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n.尖峰形成v.加烈酒于( spike的现在分词 );偷偷地给某人的饮料加入(更多)酒精( 或药物);把尖状物钉入;打乱某人的计划 | |
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23
spine
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n.脊柱,脊椎;(动植物的)刺;书脊 | |
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24
writhing
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(因极度痛苦而)扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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25
hawks
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鹰( hawk的名词复数 ); 鹰派人物,主战派人物 | |
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26
hawk
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n.鹰,骗子;鹰派成员 | |
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27
likeness
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n.相像,相似(之处) | |
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28
purely
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adv.纯粹地,完全地 | |
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29
talons
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n.(尤指猛禽的)爪( talon的名词复数 );(如爪般的)手指;爪状物;锁簧尖状突出部 | |
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30
bristles
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短而硬的毛发,刷子毛( bristle的名词复数 ) | |
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31
beak
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n.鸟嘴,茶壶嘴,钩形鼻 | |
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32
inevitable
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adj.不可避免的,必然发生的 | |
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33
wrens
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n.鹪鹩( wren的名词复数 ) | |
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34
perch
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n.栖木,高位,杆;v.栖息,就位,位于 | |
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35
hawthorn
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山楂 | |
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36
swoops
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猛扑,突然下降( swoop的名词复数 ) | |
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37
quarry
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n.采石场;v.采石;费力地找 | |
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38
hovering
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鸟( hover的现在分词 ); 靠近(某事物); (人)徘徊; 犹豫 | |
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39
thicket
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n.灌木丛,树林 | |
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40
devour
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v.吞没;贪婪地注视或谛听,贪读;使着迷 | |
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41
assuaged
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v.减轻( assuage的过去式和过去分词 );缓和;平息;使安静 | |
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42
moors
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v.停泊,系泊(船只)( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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43
abound
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vi.大量存在;(in,with)充满,富于 | |
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44
scarcity
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n.缺乏,不足,萧条 | |
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45
lizards
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n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 ) | |
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46
chilly
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adj.凉快的,寒冷的 | |
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