'iQlO J General Notes. 459 



return of the female, and I must admit that it was with some difficulty 

 that I was able to discover the nest again, so well was it hidden. The 

 female again hurriedly flushed which helped me out from further search. 

 In late summer and early fall it is a tedious matter to make these little 

 mouse-like sparrows flush, and once put up they pitch down into the grass 

 apparently only a short distance away, and evidently w(5rm their way 

 through the tangled grass to a distant part of the field. In 1905 I saw the 

 first bird April 30, and the last Oct. 1; in 1904 the last was secured Oct. 

 2. In 1906 I noted the first May 6; in 1908, May 6; and in 1909, May 12. 

 — B. H. Swales, Grosse Isle, Mich. 



The Impaling Instinct in Shrikes. — The shrike habit of impaling its 

 prey on thorns is mentioned in nearly every book on birds, but the greatest 

 diversity exists as to the reason given for the habit, some maintaining that 

 it is done out of an innate love of torture, others, to lure other victims, 

 still others, that it serves only as a fork to hold the prey, while most seem 

 to agree with Audubon that it is "quite a mystery." 



As I can find, in the literature at my disposal, only three references to 

 its returning to feed on its victim (Condor, IV, also quoted in Bailey's 

 'Handbook of the Birds of the Western United States'; Bull. 9, U. S. 

 Dept. of Agric, Div. of Biol. Sur.; and Knight's statement in 'Birds of 

 Maine' that "sometimes they do" return), it seemed desirable to put the 

 following observation on record. 



The shrike {Lanius ludovicianis excuhilorides) in the vicinity of Albu- 

 querque, New Mexico, feeds, during the late fall and winter, quite fre- 

 quently on the lizards {Uta stansburiana and Holbrookia maculata) which 

 usually are about in some numbers during the warmer hours of an average 

 winter day. These the shrike impales on thorns, etc., according to its 

 usual custom with small birds and grasshoppers. But the month of 

 December, 1909, was unusually cold and the hzards did not appear. 



While riding over the mesa early in January I both saw and heard a 

 shrike perched on a desert willow (Chilopsis) feeding on some dry hard 

 substance. Examination showed that the food was the extremely dry 

 bodies of some lizards that had all the appearance of having been placed 

 there several weeks before. The ground about was strewn with fragments 

 and there were still many on the thorn-Uke branches of the Chilopsis. 

 It was the noise the bird made in his attempt to break up this material 

 that first attracted my attention. It is well to observe that in our dry- 

 atmosphere such an impaled animal does not decay as it would in a more 

 humid climate but cures perfectly. In fact the native people regularly 

 dry pieces of meat for future use by fastening it to the clothes-line where 

 it is exposed to the almost tropical sun and desert wind. — J. R. Watson, 

 University of N^ew Mexico. 



Petrochelidon f ulva pallida in Texas. — Among a number of skins col- 

 lected at Kerrville, Texas, by Mr. Isadore Prions which I recently received 



