V °L XI 1 General Notes. 329 



Note on the Habits of the Northern Shrike {Lanins borealis). — On 

 the 9th of March, 1892, at Concord, Mass., I saw a Northern Shrike 

 (Lanius borealis) capture, kill and dispose of a meadow mouse. The 

 bird's behavior and methods were so interesting and, in some respects, 

 peculiar that I submit the following account of the episode in nearly the 

 words in which I find it described in my notes written at the time. 



As I was watching a Shrike it flew from the topmost spray of a small 

 maple into some alders and alighted on a horizontal stem about a foot 

 above the level of the surrounding snow; but directly beneath, as I after- 

 wards found, the snow had thawed quite down to the ground leaving a 

 trench about two feet deep by three or four inches wide into which the 

 Shrike, after peering intently for a moment, suddenly dropped, with 

 fluttering wings and wide spread tail. Within a second or less it re- 

 appeared dragging out a field mouse (Arvicola riparius) of the largest 

 size. The moment it got the mouse fairly out on the hard surface of the 

 snow it dropped it, apparently to get a fresh hold (as nearly as I could 

 make out it had held it, up to this time, by about the middle of the back). 

 The mouse, instead of attempting to regain its runway, as I expected it 

 would do, instantly turned on its assailant and with surprising fierceness 

 and agility sprang directly at its head many times in succession, literally 

 driving it backward several feet, although the Shrike faced its attacks 

 with admirable steadiness and coolness, and by a succession of vigor- 

 ous and well aimed blows prevented the mouse from closing in. At 

 length the mouse seemed to lose heart and turning, tried to escape. This 

 sealed its fate, for at the end of the second leap, it was overtaken by the 

 Shrike who caught it by the back of the neck and began to worry it 

 precisely as a terrier worries a rat, shaking it viciously from side to side, 

 at the same time dragging it about over the snow which, as I could 

 plainly see through my glass (I was standing within ten yards of the 

 spot), was now freely stained with blood. I could also see the Shrike's 

 mandibles work with a vigorous, biting motion, especially when it 

 stopped the shaking to rest for a moment. When it finally let go its 

 hold the mouse was evidently dead. The Shrike now looked up and 

 seeing me jumped on the mouse with both feet and flew off bearing it in 

 its claws. Its flight was slow and labored. In fact it did not succeed in 

 rising more than two feet above the snow and went less than two 

 hundred feet before relighting. As I again approached it was tearing 

 at the mouse but it stopped as soon as it saw me and flew some fifty 

 yards further, dropping, this time, into a thicket of alders where it laid 

 the mouse on the snow and resumed its meal. Shortly afterwards it 

 raised the mouse to a branch a few inches above the snow and doubling 

 it over this so that the head hung down on one side, the tail on the other, 

 left it for awhile and alighting above it sat for several minutes nearly 

 motionless. Then it returned to the mouse and taking it by the head 

 dragged it up along the branch until it came to an acute-angled fork a 

 foot or more above the snow. Through this fork it dropped the body; 

 42 



