The Lamar register. [volume] (Lamar, Colo.) 1889-1952, 1908-07-15

great northern shrike. than there "a
to observe those of the loggerhead
The northern bird Is with us in win
ter, and hunger drives him into thu
cities, where he carries on the lauda
BILE work of killing English sparrows,
One of these birds daily visited a tree
In front of my window overlooking o
busy city street. Almost invariably
he caught a sparrow. Once after
he had struck victim 1t es-
capped from him and fell futtering to-
snow bank picked up the spar
row and killed 1t to put 1t out Of Its
misery. 1t had a clean. round hole
In Its skull. How the shrike made
such a perfect circle with its hooked
beak has been a puzzling question to
this day.
On another occasion / witnessed o
bit OF shrike strategy. The bird knew
apparently that the crevices In the
cornice OF big city building af-
forded retreats for the sparrows. IL
flew along the cornice fluttering Its
wings and literally beating the COW
erts." A frightened sparrow flew QUO
and the shrike gave chase. The spar
row zigzagged In Its flight. bothering
its pursuer not a little. The shrike
"overran" the sparrow time after
time. 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 a smaller bird than the robin. 1t
sings well and 1t is hard 20 account
for its predatory habits.
Something was said recently about
a goldhnch which sheltered Its young
from the heat of the sun by spread
ing Its wings and forming a feathered
canopy over the nest. DIR. Dearborn.
assistant curator Of birds at the Field
Columbian museum. secured a photo
graph of a goldfnch doing this act OF
kindness for its little ones.
Something has been said OF the APP
parent disregard of birds for odors
that are offensive to man. Possibly
we should not regard such indiffer-.
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 loathng. The black-billed
hairy caterpiIlars the most epicurean
Of repasts. Nearly every other. spe-.
cies OF birds turn away from the cat
erpillars, which. were II not for tho
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
l,rt,, thn .Iut
of earth?
have seen birds of many kinds
drink of the waters of a spring that
smelled to heaven. while not ten
yards away was 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 field will do all the service of a
barrel of paris green and VIII leave
no poison traces behind to mar the
results of their work. The rose
breast is the very Beau Brummel oof
birds. His appearance would denote
a taste for ambrosia, but potato bugs
are to his liking. and who will quar-
rel with preference directed along
the lines of such usefulness to man.
kind?
EDWARD B. CLARKsie ..