NORTHERN SHRIKE ;J43 



were sparingly uttered with intervals. It was a decided 

 chinking sound — the clearest strain — suggesting much 

 ice in the stream. I heard this bird sing once before, 

 but that was also in early spring, or about this time. It 

 is said that they imitate the notes of the birds in order 

 to attract them within their reach. Why, then, have I 

 never heard them sing in the winter? (I have seen 

 seven or eight of them the past winter quite near.) The 

 birds which it imitated — if it imitated any this morn- 

 ing — were the catbird and the robin, neither of which 

 probably would it catch, — and the first is not here to 

 be caught. Hearing a peep, I looked up and saw three 

 or four birds passing rather [sic], which suddenly de- 

 scended and settled on this oak-top. They were robins, 

 but the shrike instantly hid himself behind a bough and 

 in half a minute flew off to a walnut and alighted, as 

 usual, on its very topmost twig, apparently afraid of its 

 visitors. The robins kept their ground, one alighting 

 on the very point which the shrike vacated. Is not this, 

 then, probably the spring note or pairing note or notes 

 of the shrike ? 



Dec. 18, 1859. I see three shrikes in different places 

 to-day, — two on the top of apple trees, sitting still in 

 the storm, on the lookout. They fly low to another tree 

 when disturbed, much like a bluebird, and jerk their 

 tails once or twice when they alight. 



Dec. 30, 1859. Going by Dodd's, I see a shrike 

 perched on the tip-top of the topmost upright twig of 

 an English cherry tree before his house, standing s(juare 

 on the topmost bud, balancing himself by a slight mo- 

 tion of his tail from time to time. I have noticed this 



