158 BIRDS AND BIRDS. 



what would have been the result had he overtaken 

 him. Probably it was only a kind of brag on the 

 part of the bird, a bold dash where no risk was 

 run. He simulated the hawk, the squirrel's real 

 enemy, and no doubt enjoyed the joke. 



On another occasion, as I was riding along a mount- 

 ain road early in April, a bird started from the fence 

 where I was passing, and flew heavily to the branch 

 of a near apple-tree. It proved to be a shrike with 

 a small bird in his beak. He thrust his victim into a 

 fork of a branch, then wiped his bloody beak upon 

 the bark. A youth who was with me, to whom I 

 pointed out the fact, had never heard of such a thing, 

 and was much incensed at the shrike. " Let me fire 

 a stone at him," said he, and jumping out of the 

 wagon he pulled off his mittens, and fumbled about 

 for a stone. Having found one to his liking, with 

 great earnestness and deliberation he let drive. The 

 bird was in more danger than I had imagined, for he 

 escaped only by a hair's breadth ; a guiltless bird like 

 the robin or sparrow would surely have been slain ; 

 *.he missile grazed the spot where the shrike sat, and 

 cut the ends of his wings as he darted behind the 

 branch. We could see that the murdered bird had 

 been brained, as its head hung down toward us. 



The shrike is not a summer bird with us in the 

 Northern States, but. mainly a fall and winter one 

 <n summer he goes farther north. I see him mosl 

 frequently in November and December. I recall a 

 morning during the former month that was singularly 



