LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE 137 



H. L. Stoddard writes me that a shrike got into a banding trap of 

 one of his neighbors near Beachton, Ga., and killed a chipping spar- 

 row. "The queer part of the tiling was that there was a stiff straw 

 through the sparrow's neck," he says. "I went down and got the bird 

 and found that the shrike had pinched at the neck and broken it in 

 several places. The only explanation of the presence of the straw that 

 occurs to me is that the instinct to hang prey on a twig or thorn is a 

 very strong one. The shrike would have been unable to eat the spar- 

 row in the usual way as there was no place in the trap to hang it (and 

 shrikes are probably unable to hold prey in the feet as do birds of 

 prey). Hence it had worked the stiff straw through the neck in an 

 attempt to anchor the bird for eating. At first glance this would 

 seem impossible, but when we remember the skill in nest-building it 

 does not seem so remarkable. The straw was stuck through between 

 the gullet and windpipe just above the breast in the exact spot where 

 shrikes usually hang the small birds they kill." 



E. G. Holt (1913) watched a loggerhead near Barachias, Ala., kill 

 a mockingbird {Mimus -polyglottos) . It was during a severe freeze, 

 and the shrike attacked and pinned down the mocker, striking it re- 

 peatedly with its beak and soon killing it. Holt tlien interrupted 

 proceedings by picking up the dead bird and examining it; then, as 

 he held it in his outstretched hand, the shrike returned and attempted 

 to take it. Subsequent observation revealed that it removed the 

 mockingbird's entrails through a small hole above the kidneys. 



Loggerheads rather frequently incur the wrath of owners of canaries 

 in attacks on these cage birds. When a cage is placed on a porch oi 

 anywhere outside, it seems to be an irresistible attraction to shrikes 

 in the vicinity. When one alights on the cage it produces panic in the 

 canary, which, instead of remaining in the middle of the percli where 

 it would be perfectly safe, often sticks its head out between the bars. 

 Thereupon it is clipped neatly off by the shrike, or so pierced by its 

 beak that death is the result. The writer's mother lost three canaries 

 in this way while summering on a beach resort near Charleston, S. C, 

 a place where loggerheads were abundant. 



The food of the loggerhead is nearly entirely animal in character. 

 Food of eastern shrikes is wholly of this category, though examina- 

 tion of some of the western subspecies showed that vegetable matter 

 amounted to 2.5 percent (F. E. L. Beal, 1912). Professor Beal's 

 researches further revealed that the eastern bird shows a breakdown 

 of 68 percent insects, 4 percent spiders, and 28 percent vertebrates. 

 These studies were based on the contents of 88 stomachs. Distinct 

 seasonal variation appears in the food take, for it has been established 

 that the warm seasons show a preponderance of insect prey secured, 

 while in winter the greater part consists of mice and small birds. 



Among the insects the Orthoptera compose the largest item. Grass- 



843290—50 10 



