84 BIEDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 



The shrike resembles a bird of prey in form of beak and, to a cer- 

 tain extent, in food habits. Unlike the true birds of prey, however, its 

 feet are not provided with talons for seizing prey and holding it 

 securely w^hile it is being torn into pieces. Whenever the shrike cap- 

 tures game that must be torn apart it presses it firmly down into a 

 forked branch where it can readily be dissected. 



The habit of the shrike of storing food apparently for future con- 

 sumption has often been noticed. When food is abundant surplus 

 captures are hung on thorns, sharp twigs, or, in recent times, the 

 barbs of wire fences until needed ; but as such occasions seldom arise, 

 nine-tenths of this stored food is wasted so far as the shrike is 

 concerned. Various more or less plausible explanations of this 

 habit have been offered, but the simplest and most natural seems to 

 be that much of the time the bird hunts simply for the pleasure and 

 excitement of the chase, and as prey is often captured when hunger 

 has already been, satisfied it is stored for future use. It is the same 

 instinct and lust for slaughter that prompts man to kill game that 

 he can not use. The habit seems to be manifested also in a somewhat 

 different w^ay by the crow and magpie, which store up bits of glass 

 or bright metal for which they can have no possible use. In the 

 case of the shrike, however, the habit is useful to man if not to 

 the bird, for most of its prey consists of noxious creatures, the de- 

 struction of which is a decided benefit. 



The diet of the shrike and that pi the sparrow hawk are almost 

 exactly alike. It is a curious illustration of two species standing 

 far apart systematically but by special modification approaching 

 each other in food habits. The sparrow hawk has all the equipment 

 of a carnivorous bird, but owing to its diminutive size its attacks 

 are necessarily confined to the smaller kinds of prey, largely insects. 

 The shrike, on the other hand, is a member of a group almost 

 purel}^ insectivorous, but it is so large and strong and has a beak 

 so modified that in addition to its ordinary diet of insects, it is able 

 on occasions to capture and tear apart small birds and mammals. 

 While at present the two birds subsist upon much the same diet it 

 is evident that their food habits have been modified in different 

 ways. The natural food of the haAvk family as a whole is vertebrate 

 animals, to which some of its members, including our little sparrow 

 hawk, have added a large percentage of insects. The normal food 

 of the shrike is insects, to which on occasions it adds the smaller 

 species of vertebrates. 



like the birds of prey and some other birds, the shrike habitually 

 disgorges the indigestible portions of its food after the nutritive part 

 has been digested. The bones and hair of mice are rolled into com- 

 pact pellets in the stomach and finally disgorged. From examination 

 of these a very good idea of the shrike's food may be gained. 



