BIRDS OF PEASEMARSH 



try places it has become of vital importance 

 that small birds should be protected from them. 



All that has been said of the Crow applies 

 also to the Crow-Blackbird, and applies with 

 emphasis, for the Blackbird will glide in and 

 out of the thickets where the song birds nest, 

 escaping our notice more easily than a Crow. 

 The Blackbird has also increased in numbers 

 and unless kept in check but a small propor- 

 tion of the nests of the song birds can escape. 



Another bird, the Shrike, has been known to 

 take not only nestlings, but the adult birds 

 where they can be obtained. Somewhere near 

 the farm a pair of Shrikes have nested for two 

 years in succession and evaded all efforts to in- 

 duce them to move their housekeeping opera- 

 tions farther on. Their lookout point is usually 

 a telegraph wire along the road near the river. 

 The boys when fishing one evening saw a 

 Shrike pounce upon and kill a Bluebird. The 

 Shrike, however, is an insectivorous bird and 

 protected by the Migratory Bird Convention 

 Act. 



A bird that has a different way of extermin- 

 ating nestlings is the Cowbird. Where a Cow- 

 bird egg is deposited in a small bird's nest it 

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