WESTERN BIRDS Shrike 



fibers, string, wool and soft material for a lining. A 

 nest I once found contained five fully feathered young 

 that quite resembled the adults. The filled nest was one 

 of the prettiest ones I have seen for the young were 

 packed tightly in in the most symmetrical way, with the 

 gray heads turned outward, forming a pretty border 

 around the rim. 



Though these California Shrikes sometimes kill young 

 chickens and eat their brains, behead caged Canaries, 

 and occasionally other small birds, ordinarily they are 

 seen minding their own business, sometimes surrounded 

 by smaller birds that pay no attention to them, and 

 showing that they do not fear the big gray bird in their 

 midst. 



This Shrike is very fond of that pest, the Jerusalem 

 cricket, which eats potatoes in the ground and is a most 

 uncanny-looking creature. Because of his insect-eating 

 habits he is considered beneficial, but when they take 

 the lives of our song birds they should be destroyed. 



Another Shrike which differs from the California in 

 being much darker and smaller, and in having the white 

 of wings and tail restricted, is found on the Santa Bar- 

 bara and San Clemente Islands, off the coast of Califor- 

 nia, and is called the Island Shrike (L. 1. anthonyi). 



White-rumped Shrike: Lanius hedovicianus 

 excubitorides. 



FAMILY— SHRIKES. 



Another member of this family which is found from 

 the Great Plains westward, along the east side of the 

 Sierra Nevadas, in Washington and to southeastern 

 California, Arizona, and Texas, is called the White- 

 rumped Shrike. It differs from the California chiefly 

 in having a whitish breast. 



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