A rambler in the fields and woodlands during early spring or
the latter part of autumn is often surprised at finding insects,
grasshoppers, dragon flies, beetles of all kinds, and even larger
game, mice, and small birds, impaled on twigs and thorns. This is
apparently cruel sport, he observes, if he is unacquainted with the
Butcher Bird and his habits, and he at once attributes it to the
wanton sport of idle children who have not been led to say,
With hearts to love, with eyes to see,
With ears to hear their minstrelsy;
Through us no harm, by deed or word,
Shall ever come to any bird.
If he will look about him, however, the real author of this mischief
will soon be detected as he appears with other unfortunate little
creatures, which he requires to sustain his own life and that of his
nestlings. The offender he finds to be the Shrike of the northern
United States, most properly named the Butcher Bird. Like all tyrants
he is fierce and brave only in the presence of creatures weaker than
himself, and cowers and screams with terror if he sees a falcon. And
yet, despite this cruel proceeding, which is an implanted instinct
like that of the dog which buries bones he never seeks again, there
are few more useful birds than the Shrike. In the summer he lives on
insects, ninety-eight per cent. of his food for July and August
consisting of insects, mainly grasshoppers; and in winter, when
insects are scarce, mice form a very large proportion of his food.
The Butcher Bird has a very agreeable song, which is soft and musical,
and he often shows cleverness as a mocker of other birds. He has been
taught to whistle parts of tunes, and is as readily tamed as any of
our domestic songsters.
The nest is usually found on the outer limbs of trees, often from
fifteen to thirty feet from the ground. It is made of long strips of
the inner bark of bass-wood, strengthened on the sides with a few dry
twigs, stems, and roots, and lined with fine grasses. The eggs are
often six in number, of a yellowish or clayey-white, blotched and
marbled with dashes of purple, light brown, and purplish gray. Pretty
eggs to study.
Readers of BIRDS who are interested in eggs do not need to disturb
the mothers on their nests in order to see and study them. In all the
great museums specimens of the eggs of nearly all birds are displayed
in cases, and accurately colored plates have been made and published
by the Smithsonian Institution and others. The Chicago Academy of
Sciences has a fine collection of eggs. Many persons imagine that
these institutions engage in cruel slaughter of birds in order to
collect eggs and nests. This, of course, is not true, only the fewest
number being taken, and with the exclusive object of placing before
the people, not for their amusement but rather for their instruction,
specimens of birds and animals which shall serve for their
identification in forest and field.
The Loggerhead Shrike and nest shown in this number were taken under
the direction of Mr. F. M. Woodruff, at Worth, Ill., about fourteen
miles from Chicago. The nest was in a corner of an old hedge of Osage
Orange, and about eight feet from the ground. He says in the _Osprey_
that it took considerable time and patience to build up a platform of
fence boards and old boxes to enable the photographer to do his work.
The half-eaten body of a young garter snake was found about midway
between the upper surface of the nest and the limb above, where it had
been hung up for future use.
[Illustration: From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences. LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE.]