240 SOME COMMON LAND-BIRDS. 



I ever saw contains more of Plymouth Rock or of plain 

 white feathers than of every other kind taken together, 

 and observers from other localities near by note the same. 

 Evidently, in this section, the bird chooses these dull feathers, 

 hunts till she finds them, and then arranges them in a curious 

 manner that well bears out the assertion that her choice is 

 reasonable. 



At first sight you would call this a rough nest. Any bird, 

 you would think, would know better than to leave feathers 

 sticking up all around her nest in this unfinished way. But 

 more careful observation will show you that the feathers are 

 sticking up only around the rim of the nest ; that they are put 

 in carefully so that the tips curve inward over the hollow of 

 the nest. Fifteen Plymouth Eock hen's feathers arch over 

 this deep warm nest, and shade the mother as she sits upon it. 



Do you recollect that the bird built in a lone tree in an open 

 pasture, where she was much exposed to enemies ? There is 

 a good reason why she should wish to hide herself while on 

 her nest, and why she chose dull, mottled feathers that har- 

 monize with the color of her back and of the nest, for a 

 screen. 



It is true that I have not told you the name of the graybird. 

 There is a prejudice against the name of shrike, and when a 

 bird has such an unattractive title as " loggerhead shrike," it is 

 hard for her to get justice done. But really, she is not at all 

 a bad bird, and she does know how to make the softest, warm- 

 est nest you ever saw. In the South and West she does not 

 build in a spruce tree nor use so many feathers ; there you 

 would best look for her in some thorny thicket. 



We have two kinds of shrikes, the great northern, or 

 winter shrike, and the loggerhead, or summer shrike. The 

 former is seen only in the more northern states, and there 



