THE MISSISSIPPI RESERVES 277 



memorial ages, and why, did this particular 

 bird develop its strange determination always, 

 where possible, to use a snake's cast-off skin in 

 building its nest? Every season, I w^as told, 

 this flycatcher nested in the same hollow; and 

 every season the hollow was previously nested 

 in by a tufted titmouse. Loggerhead shrikes 

 were plentiful. Insects were their usual food, 

 but they also pounced on small birds, mice, 

 and lizards, and once on a httle chicken. They 

 empale their prey on locust thorns and on the 

 spines of other trees and bushes; and I have 

 known a barbed-wire fence to be decorated 

 with the remains of their victims. There were 

 red cardinal-birds ; and we saw another red bird 

 also, a summer tanager. 



But the most interesting birds on the place 

 were not wild, being nothing more nor less than 

 ordinary fowls engaged in what to me were most 

 unordinary occupations. Parker had several 

 hundred fowls, and had by trial discovered the 

 truth of the statement that capons make far 

 better mothers than do hens, especially for very 

 young chicks. We saw dozens of broods of 

 chickens, and one or two of young guinea- 

 fowl, being taken care of by caponized ban- 

 tams, game-cocks, and cochin-chinas. These 

 improvised mothers looked almost precisely as 



