The Purple Swallow alone seems capable of contesting the field with this courageous opponent, and resisting its attacks. Wilson mentions having seen the Tyrant Shrike also greatly irritated by his vain efforts to get rid of the Red-headed Woodpecker, the latter dodging him round a rail, and appearing highly amused at the impotent rage of his assailant. About August the voices of these birds are far more rarely heard, and they employ their time in picking the worms and insects from the furrows in the fields, or in gliding over the water in pursuit of flies. Like the Swallow, they drink and bathe whilst on the wing, invariably perching upon a neighbouring tree, the better to dry their plumage. The Tyrant Shrikes quit the United States before any other of the feathered summer visitors, and prosecute their migrations by night as well as by day, flying alternately with rapidly repeated strokes of the pinions, and a smooth, gliding motion, that is apparently produced without the slightest effort. The flesh of this species is delicate, and much esteemed in Louisiana. A Tyrant Shrike kept for many months by Nuttall always swallowed berries whole; grasshoppers, if too large to be so disposed of, were pounded and broken on the floor of his cage, as the bird held them in his beak. To manage the larger beetles was not so easy; these he struck repeatedly against the ground, and then turned from side to side, by throwing them dexterously into the air, after the manner of the Toucan; the insect being uniformly caught reversed as it descended, with the agility of a practised cup and ball player. After the beetle was swallowed, he remained perfectly still for some time, in order to digest his meal, tasting it distinctly some time after it entered the stomach, as was obvious from the ruminating motion of his mandible. When the soluble portion had been extracted, large pellets of the indigestible legs, wings, and shells were brought up again in half an hour's time, and ejected from the mouth after the manner of Hawks and Owls. This bird, we are further told, had the sagacity to retire under the shelter of a depending bed-quilt in the apartment about which he was allowed to run at large, if the weather was unusually cold. THE BENTEVI.