MOTHER SHRIKE 73 



made a straight dart up in the air and met their 

 blundering victims. 



During the two weeks after I found the nest 

 I saw a great deal of the shrike pair. I had been 

 waiting for an opportunity to get a picture of 

 this bird, and I felt that now it had arrived. This 

 tame, unconcerned creature I fancied was an 

 easy victim, but I reckoned without my host. 

 Though she seemed to have no fear of me at all, 

 she did display a strange dread of the kodak. 

 The first time I tried to get her she refused to 

 come back to the nest at all. However, it was a 

 warm evening, and I knew that the eggs would 

 not chill — mother shrike did, also — so I fixed up 

 my platform of posts and prepared for a grand 

 coup next time. 



When I had a cool, bright afternoon with a 

 northwest breeze I tried again. The antics of the 

 little mother now were half comical, half pathetic. 

 Quite well she knew that her eggs had now to be 

 covered, and back she came. Yet only for a mo- 

 ment or two would she remain on the nest. On 

 and oif, off and on, hopping but a foot or two 

 away, then quickly returning, she kept up a con- 

 tinuous movement for a while before finally set- 

 tling down. When the noisy focal-plane shutter 



