Monthly Bulletin 15 



their song. I hear it, as do others, every morning, and usually the birds are 

 perched high in a tree, where lower down on the trunk there is a knothole 

 in which the English sparrows are nesting. Evidently the shrikes are about 

 their business. Not far from there I found quite a good many small 

 (sparrow) feathers — still, I assume, another evidence of the shrike's pres- 

 ence. This morning one of these was perched high, and higher still over 

 him sat an English sparrow, and there was also another sparrow in the tree. 

 The shrike was uneasy, and certainly the sparrows gave him no peace. , 

 Finally he flew away with the sparrows after him, and I am quite sure that 

 he was pinched and lost feathers. This was new to me, suggesting the king- 

 bird-crow fracases. I had always seen the sparrows huddle together when 

 a shrike appeared. 



Last year, in the same little "Park Garden" I saw a shrike kill a sparrow 

 and fly with it to a neighboring tree. The first days of January were very 

 cold, if you remember. What are the whys and wherefores of this date of 

 song? Am I mistaken in thinking it exceptional? 



Agnes M. Paxson. 



Mr. Ralph Hofi'mann, in his "Guide to the Birds of New England and 

 Eastern New York," says, "The shrike sings occasionally all through the 

 winter, but more often in February and March." — Editor. 



EDGARTOWN (Nov. 30, 1919) 



I think you will be interested to know that I had the pleasure of seeing 

 this fall, a wood thrush, a veery, two gray-cheeked thrushes and several 

 hermit thrushes, the last seen Nov. 23rd, which is a late date. Both kinds 

 of crossbills have been here and the red ones are still here. I have seen 

 one redpoll and several siskins. I have a few chickadees, nuthatches and 

 myrtle warblers that come to my feeding table, and a few days ago a palm 

 warbler was around, but before it had partaken of anything the English 

 sparrows chased it away. The mockingbird is still with us. 



MONA WORDEN. 



ITEMS 



Charles 0. Blood, of Lynnfield Centre, reports evening grosbeaks, 

 starlings and the commoner winter birds feeding in harmony at his station. 



William S. Rutherford, in charge of the Russell estate at Norfolk, re- 

 ports four robins wintering there. Crestbrook Farm, as this estate is called, 

 is noted for the springy brooks filled with watercress and open the year 

 round. The open water and probably the green food seem to attract the 

 robins. 



Mr. Kunhardt, of North Andover, reports evening grosbeaks. 



General Elbert Wheeler, President of the New Hampshire Audubon 

 Society, reports pine grosbeaks and twenty or more evening grosbeaks on 

 his place at Concord, N. H. 



Rev. Manley B. Townsend, formerly Secretary of the New Hampshire 

 Audubon Society, lately installed as pastor at North Attleboro, Mass., 

 reports siskins and pine grosbeaks at that place. 



