The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-09-13
HRIKES.

| Unfortunately the northern shrike is l only winter visitant with us, and con-
 sequently we have comparatively little opportunity to study the habits of this interesting bird. His real home is in
 the far north, but he leaves it at almost any time between the first of November
 and the first of April we are apt to meet l him in our walks afield. The chances
 are that when we see him he will be
 perched on the top of a tree, apparently doing nothing, really watching most
 keenly for any small creature on which | he can make meal.
 l If we look at him through our field 1 glasses, we shall see a bird about the
 size of a robin, but with a hooked, 1 hawk-like bill, which gives him a some what sinister expression. His upper
 parts are gray, his wings and tail are
 black, and there is white on the base of his primaries, and on the tips of his
 secondaries and outer tail feathers. His forehead is whitish; lores and ear
 covers, black, and his under parts l white, as rule finely barred with 1 black. If we continue to watch him we
 may possibly hear him initiate the cries of a sparrow or some other bird, repeat
 ing the sound from time to time. All
 the while he keeps a bright lookout, and presently, when his cries have attract
 ed an audience, perhaps of song spar
 rows, he pitches down with closed wings, alights upon some little victim
 and quickly kills it with the sharp curved bill, often tearing open the skull. The shrike has several other names, | such as "murdering pie" butcher bird" and mine kill" all of which have reference to his habit of killing and
 hanging up his victims upon thorns, barbed wire and other convenient
 spikes until he is ready to eat them. | The last name was given him by the Germans, and arose from a vulgar be- l lief that the bird caught and hung up nine victims before he would eat any of them. As matter of fact, there is no rule about the number of victims the shrike will impale: he probably catches all the prey he can, and hangs up what 1 is not required for immediate use. The butcher bird preys chiefly upon insects, small birds and small mammals, and
 grasshoppers, mice and sparrows are of l ten found amongst the contents of a | shrike's larder Sometimes the vic- | tims are dead when impaled: at other times they are alive, and the finding Of l insects and other creatures squirming on a thorn bush or on a barbed-wire fence gave rise to the belief that cruel l ty was the motive for this strange habit.
 Of course this theory is absurd, and
 no better proof of it's absurdity is re- quired than the fact that in captivity the bird will impale piece of raw beef
 as readily as live sparrow or beetle. There are probably two reasons why the shrike impales his victims. One is the uncertainty of the chase. Some
 days the hunting is good and he cap- lures twice as much game as he can eat. while other days yield nothing. 1 So in time of plenty he prepares for a time of need. Another reason is that while in many respects he is hawk-like, his feet are comparatively weak and he requires something to hold his food, be-
 fore he can tear it with his hooked bill. A captive shrike which had been given a. piece of raw meat was observed to search all over the room for something to hang it on. He was not satisfied un- til some one held out to him fork on prongs of which he quickly hitched his
 meat and then proceeded to dine. Gagged shrikes have also been known to
 hang their food on pointed nails, sharp ened sticks, and even between the bars of the cage.
 Like crows and jaws, they often for get where they hide things and their