The Jasper news., 1908-07-30

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great northern shrike than there 10
to observe those of the loggerhead.
The northern bird Is with us In win.
ter and hunger drives him into the
cities, where he carries on the lauda.
BILE work OF killing English sparrows.
One of these birds daily visited tree
in front of my window overlooking q
busy city street. Almost Invariably
he caught q sparrow. Once after
he had struck victim 1t es.
capped from him and fell futtering to
a snow bank. picked up the spar
row and killed 1t to put 1t out of Its
misery. It had clean, round hole
in its skull, How the shrike made
such n perfect. circle with its hooked
beak has been a puzzling question to
this day. :.
= On another occasion witnessed o
bit ofrshrike strategy. The bird knew
apparently that the crevices in the
cornice Of a big city building af-
forded retreats for the sparrows. 1t
few along the cornice fluttering Its
wings and literally "beating the COW
'erts." A frightened sparrow flew out
and the shfike- gave chase. The spar
row zigzagged in its flight, bothering
its pursuer not little. The shrike
"overran" the sparrow time after
dme,, but finally seized 1t Just as 1t
reached the edge Of thick bush, in
the heart of which 1t would have been
safe. The victim was killed and Its
brains were eaten with an appetite
sharpened by the chase. The shrike
is smaller bird than the robin. 1t
sings well and 1t Is. hard to account
for its predatory habits.
Something was said recently about
goldfinch which sheltered it's young
from the heat Of the sun by spread.
ing Its wings and forming a feathered
canopy over the nest. DR.. Dearborn,
assistant curator of birds at the Field
Columbian museum, secured photo
graph of goldfinch doing this act Of
kindness for its little ones.
Something has been said Of the ap.
parent disregard Of birds for odors
that are offensive to man. Possibly
We should not regard such fndiffer.
ence to bad smells as being a particle
more peculiar than are the tastes Of
birds In the matter Of diet. The robin
loves angle worms. while man regards
them with loathing. The black-billed
and the yellowibilled cuckoos think
hairy caterpillars the most epicurean
Of repasts. Nearly every other spe.
cies OF birds turn away from the cat.
erpillars,, which, were 1t not for the
cuckoos, would soon denude our trees
Of the beauty of their foliage. The
buzzard dimes on dog and considers
that he has feasted. What is little
thing like a smell to an organism that
can thrive upon the repulsive things
| of earth?
/ have seen birds of many kinda
drink Of the waters Of a spring that
smelled to heaven, while not ten
yards away was. a sweet flowing
fountain, To be sure. the spring
where the songsters drank was me.
dicinal, and man partook freely
while he held his nose. Possibly long
before man came the birds had found
the virtue that was In the waters.
The rose-breasted grosbeak. one Of
| our common summer residents has
in recent years developed food fond,
ness for which the farmer rises UP
and calls him blessed. The grosbeak
has found potato bugs to his liking
and he destroys the pests by the hun
dreds. A pair of grosbeaks IN . po-
| tato fia1d will d0 all the aaryfca of q
barrel OF paris green and will leave
no poison traces behind to mar the
resnits of their work. The rose
breast is the very Beau Brummel OF
birds. His appearance would denote
a taste for ambrosia. but potato bugs
are to his liking. and who will qunr-
rel with preference directed along
the lines Of such usefulness to man
hnd2
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