tail before I am done with him; and you, sir, shall have him, dead or living. I swear it by all my illustrious ancestors, the Mackenzies of Kintail!" he exclaimed, with a melodramatic air that was very amusing; and shouldering his cages and other paraphernalia of his craft, he departed with a touch of his cap and a bow that showed that amongst birds he had learned good manners and politeness to an extent that as a navvy or hired labourer he would probably be all his lifetime very much a stranger. He has not returned to us as yet, so we suppose he is still in pursuit, detective-wise, of the shrike; and it had better look out, for Mackenzie is just the man to succeed sooner or later in laying salt upon its tail, as threatened. The butcher-bird, or shrike, is the Lanius excubitor of Linnæus, an exceeding rare bird in the West Highlands--in Scotland, indeed--so rare that we never saw a living bird of the order, only stuffed or otherwise preserved cabinet specimens. It preys on small birds, mice, insects, &c., which it does not tear up from under its feet like the hawk tribe, but fixes it on a thorn-prickle, or in the fork of a small branch, and then tears it to pieces with its bill, which is very strong, and toothed and hooked at the point. When Mackenzie catches the offender he is now in search of, we shall have something more to say about the butcher-bird, if butcher-bird it proves to be. We have noticed, by the way, that all bird-catchers--all at least with whom we have had any acquaintance--are prodigious tea-drinkers, not sipping the grateful beverage from cups, observe, but literally drinking it in bowls'-full. They have assured us that they find it the best thing they can take, not merely as a refresher, but as a long sustaining element in their dietary throughout their many wanderings by flood and field. And like all large tea-drinkers, bird-catchers are a very sober class of men; that they should be so is indeed a necessity of their craft, for a knock-kneed, shaky-handed, blear-eyed, nerveless bird-catcher would be as unfit for the successful prosecution of the labours incident to his profession, as would a similar physical wreck be for the successful manipulation of his tools in the more minute and delicate departments of mathematical instrument making. CHAPTER L. Superstition amongst the People--Difficulty of dealing with it--Examples of Superstitions still prevalent in the Highlands--Cock-crowing at untimely hours--Itching of the Nose--Ringing in the Ears--The "Dead-Bell"--Sir Walter Scott--Hogg--Mickle.