LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE 141 



prey. The frequent finding of dried bodies of birds, snakes, and in- 

 sects by many observers, ignored completely by the bird, leads to such 

 an impression. 



Pearson and the Brimleys (1942) states: "Whether this bird hangs 

 up food for future use has not been definitely established. The au- 

 thors of this book have not known shrikes to return to the grasshop- 

 pers, beetles * * * that they had impaled." However, it is cer- 

 tainly the case that this is sometimes done. H. L. Stoddard (MS.) 

 writes me: "There used to be a question in my mind as to whether 

 shrikes ever returned to their food caches, after such prey had dried 

 out through hanging on a twig or wire. I settled this question to 

 my satisfaction one day in the yard here at home [Sherwood Planta- 

 tion, Grady County, Ga.]. Noticing a shrike flying through the yard 

 with a sizable object, I grabbed up a clod and threw it at the shrike, 

 which dropped the object. This proved to be a brittle dead twig 

 about 2 inches long, to which firmly adhered the dried remains of a 

 myrtle warbler. Evidently the shrike had returned to prey hung 

 many days before and in trying to remove the warbler had broken 

 oif the twig that anchored it." 



So, then, it is safe to conclude that the loggerhead does not ordi- 

 narily return to impaled prey but occasionally does so. 



Curiously enough, Audubon (1842) makes this remarkable state- 

 ment : "I have never seen it attack birds, nor stick its prey on thorns 

 in the manner of the Great American Shrike." W^iether he means 

 that he did not actually see this accomplished, or whether he never 

 found any evidence of it, is not clear, but it seems that the latter was 

 meant. If so, it is almost beyond belief, since he spent much time in 

 the loggerhead's range, and it would be most natural to conclude that 

 he would have found something of the sort during his expeditions. 

 He does, however, quote the Eev. John Bachman, who wrote him that 

 he had "never found either this or the Northern Shrike return to such 

 prey for food. * * * j i;^ave seen them alight on the same thorn 

 bush afterwards, but never made any use of this kind of food." 



Some evidence that the loggerhead occasionally indulges in a kind 

 of play, reminiscent of certain hawks, is contained in an observation 

 related to me by Herbert E. Sass, of Charleston, S. C. He happened 

 to be watching a pigeon sitting on the roof of his house one day, when 

 a loggerhead suddenly appeared in the air behind and above the pigeon 

 and, diving straight at it, struck it a resounding blow in the back! 

 The startled pigeon was knocked completely off the roof and fell sev- 

 eral feet before recovering its balance and spreading its wings. No 

 effort was made by the shrike as a follow-up; apparently it simply 

 indulged a sudden impulse, as it cannot be supposed that it meant to 

 seek the pigeon as prey. 



