THE OOLOGIST, 



stream, and iii.'^taiitly fvciy mother 

 Heroa set up a deafuuiug racket, and 

 leaving their perches began tiding wild- 

 ly al)out, nor did ihey settle down 

 again until the old Hawk had left her 

 nest. I presume tiiis show of activity 

 was for the purpose of intimitlation, 

 but they must have been continually 

 disturbed as she would return every 

 few minutes. After watching the birds 

 for a time we descended ai;d made our 

 wp.y back across the canon. When 

 passing near where I thought I had 

 flushed the bird ou our way to the 

 Hercns' nests I thought I would see if 

 she had returned to her nest. So slow- 

 ly, and cautiously I approached the 

 spot and was fortunate enough to see a 

 8i)urred Towlne slip silently from her 

 nest, and I took four line eggs. Tiie 

 nest was placed in the vines about a 

 foot from the ground and was vei'y 

 well concealeil. 



A little later my companion took a 

 set of eight of Parkman's Wren from 

 a (leserted Woodpecker's hole, and al- 

 so found a nest of young Red-tails. 

 Shortly after I took four fresh eggs of 

 ihe Western Flycatcher, whose nest 

 was built in the opening of a Wood- 

 pecker's hole, and directly over a 

 stream of water. The nest was loxered 

 e.\t(;nially with green moss. 



A line set t»f four of California Wood- 

 ]>ecktM's rggs next fell lo the lot of my 

 compaiMon. (^nr last tiiid for the day 

 wa-i a (T.'irduer's Woodpecrers nt.>-(, 

 wliii-li was in the op of a rotten cotton- 

 wood tree and about thirty feet from 

 the crcfk i)ottom. Although we made 

 the ath-mpt we found it was clearly 

 iinpos>ibl<; to make it without ;i mis- 

 hap, and were f)bliged t(^ leave it nu- 

 dist urbcd. nru.'h to our regret. 



This ended i>ur tinds tm- the day. and 

 \vc, soon li'fl for lionii". Although so 

 larasflu! priuiirv o'lj 'ct of our trip 

 was eonc(!rned, ii .\as an entire failure, 

 yet we felt uii»r.- than repaid for our 

 Iroulilivaud I <li;ill always remember 

 it Willi pleasure. 



H.\iit)i,i) II. DoixiK, 

 Santa Haibaar, ("at. 



The Loggerhead i^hrike of Florida- 

 One of the best known birds of the 

 Orange Belt or pine hills of Florida is 

 the Loggerhead Shrike. On traveling 

 along through the tall yellow pines of the 

 shade hills or the dark green and much 

 handsomer orange trees, ones atti-ntion 

 is attracted by the scolding, noisy call 

 of this bird in his favorite haunts. 



This bird has various local names 

 such as the Butcher Bird, Loggerhead, 

 Flat-head and False Mockingbird, all of 

 which api)ly very vvell to some charac- 

 teristic of the bird. I think the name 

 of Butcher Bird is most appropriate. 

 It derives this name fr*)m its habit of 

 impaling bugs, insects, lizards and even 

 small <|uadrupeds (such as young rab- 

 bits) on thorns of bushes or trees. 



A fact worth noting and one that I 

 have never noticed in books on Ornith- 

 ology, is that in all cases of impaling 

 their victims containing animal life ou 

 thorns; they force the point of the thorn 

 through the body just back of the shoul- 

 der. 



This bird is very daring, reckless and 

 warlike; pouncing on and destroying 

 any small (and sometimes quite large) 

 iiird or insect that may be luckless 

 cnougli to attract his evil attention. 

 'I'lun' are great birds for intimidating, 

 and also seem to realize when any thing 

 is so weakiMU'd as to become an easy 

 pi-ey. 



For in-taiice; a friend of mine while 

 gunniiigsliot and wounded a large Dove 

 which is much larger than the Shrike 

 aui > •'••t came bird with us at some 

 seasons ot L - \'V:r. The Dove while 

 •'skating" was set upon by a Shrike, 

 who started to pick out the eyes of the 

 unfortunate dove. The pitiful hxtk of 

 the Dove and the audacity of the Shrike 

 so moved the hunter that he shot the 

 Shrike putting an <mi(1 to the cruelty. 



But Uie Loggerhead has some good 

 |)oints as well as bad ones. He has 

 great ])owers of imitation and from this 



