1788 



The Cornell Reading-Coukses 



birds, however, feeding to a large extent on grasshoppers and crickets, 

 and have come to a carnivorous diet only secondarily, feeding to some 

 extent on small birds and field mice. They have the curious habit of 

 impaling their superfluous food on thorns or on barbs of fences; and since 

 they do not have strong talons, like the hawks, they drive their prey, if 

 too large to manage with the bill, into the fork of a limb where they can 

 tear it apart. 



Two species are found in New York State, the northern shrike in winter 



PHOTOGRAPHED BY G. A. BAILEY 



Fig. 19. — Migrant shrikes at their nest in a thorn bush 



and the migrant shrike in simimer — the latter nesting in thoni bushes or 

 similar places rather commonly in the western part of the State. The 

 birds of both species are gray, with black wings and tail and black band 

 through the eye. The northern species is somewhat the larger, and slightly 

 exceeds the robin in length. 



Shrikes are usually seen perched on a dead or exposed branch, in the 

 open country or about bushy pastures. They do not go in search of 

 their prey as do most birds, but await its coining to them, having very 



