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A Blue Jay Tragedy 



The Blue Jay and limb, with a portion 

 of the nest, from which the accompanying 

 photograph was made were found by Mr. 

 H. W. McConoghy, near Lehman, Pa. In 

 building its nest the Jay had procured 

 a strong horse-hair, which was used to 



A BLUE JAY TRAGEDY 



fasten the nest in a forked oak-limb. In 

 passing the hair over and around the 

 limb the bird made a hair loop, about 

 ten inches long, in which its head became 

 entangled and death by strangulation re- 

 sulted. — H. M. Beck, IVilkesbarre, J^a. 



Feeding a Shrike 



One March morning a Northern Shrike, 

 in the seclusion of a store doorway on 

 the principal business street of Franklin 

 Falls, N. H., was so engrossed in choking 

 an English Sparrow that he was caught 

 in the hands of a passing pedestrian. 



(I 



After an imprisonment of five or six 

 hours, the bird came into our possession 

 and was allowed his liberty in a small 

 room. When a piece of raw beefsteak 

 was given him his mode of accepting and 

 using it proved of much interest. There 

 was not a trace of fear in any of his 

 movements during our whole interview. 

 When we approached him and took hold 

 of the meat in his beak, he would tug at 

 it vigorously as if to pull it from our 

 grasp. We did not at first divine his 

 needs, as he hopped about the room seem- 

 ingly in search of something that could 

 not be found 



The man present had on high storm 

 overshoes, while another pair happened 

 to be on the floor. The Shrike appeared 

 to take a particular fancy to these articles 

 of wear and examined first a shoe on the 

 man's foot, then one on the floor. In a 

 short time his strange actions began to 

 have meaning to us, for it became evi- 

 dent that he desired to impale the meat 

 on the buckle of the shoe, but the tongue 

 of the buckle was not sharp enough to 

 hold the steak that was repeatedly drag- 

 ged across it. Observing this, a steel 

 kitchen fork was procured and held out 

 before the Shrike, and, without a mo- 

 ment's hesitation, he hopped upon the 

 hand that held it, jerked the meat over 

 the tines, and began to eat. Quick, for- 

 ward thrusts of his partly spread wings 

 added force to the work done by his 

 powerful beak, as he tore off mouthful 

 after mouthful of the meat. As an ex- 

 periment, we removed the meat from the 

 tines several times and held the fork some 

 inches away. Each time the Shrike acted 

 in the same manner. He took the meat 

 in his beak, looked about until he saw his 

 substitute for a thornbush, then he hopped 

 to it, worked the meat in position and 

 proceeded with his dinner. 



Here was an opportunity for a photog- 

 rapher of bird-life, and we determined to 

 keep him a day or two for sittings. Con- 

 tinuing to eat, perched on the hand that 



95, 



