April, 1885.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



53 



found to occur regularly in the State. Colonel 

 (joss enumerates about iJO species supposed to 

 have their geographical range within the Stale, 

 but which have not yet been taken. Some of 

 those catalogued were taken in the Stale in 1871 

 Ijy Prof. J. A. Allen, but have not since been 

 recognized. 



Col. Goss lias probably the most complele col- 

 lection of mounted specimens of North American 

 birds in e.vistence. Every specimen has been 

 mounted by his own hands. This collection is 

 displayed in one of tlie rooms in the State House, 

 at Topcka, and attracts many visitors daily. 

 When the main portion pf the capitol building is 

 completed, three rooms will be devoted to this 

 collection, and instead of presenting ils present 

 crowded condition, there will be ample space to 

 do justice to this magnificent collection. 



And yet tliese few workers have far from c.\- 

 hausted the field for Kansas Ornithologists. Col. 

 Goss has visited many parts of tlie United Stales 

 and Me.\ico in search of his treasures, but has 

 left unexplored large portions of this State. Prof. 

 Snow's duties in the class-room and his devotion 

 to other branches of Natural History, have given 

 him less time for Ornithologj', so that he has 

 been lai'gely dependent upon others for field 

 work. Dr. Watson's observations, although of 

 the most careful and conscientious sort, have been 

 necessarily in a resti'icted field. The visits of 

 Prof. Allen and Dr. Coues to the State were but 

 for a short period, and were made before the con- 

 ditions for bird-life had reached their present 

 favorable state. It is well known that Kansas 

 has underg(me great climatic changes in the past 

 dozen years. But nuicli greater have been the 

 changes in the physical features of the country. 

 Tlie planting of hedges and orchards has greatly 

 extended the range of many species of birds ; and 

 unfortunately, the destruction of timber along our 

 streams, has restricted that of others. 



It is the purpose of the writer to give the 

 readers of the '■ Ornithologist" the benefit of his 

 observations at ditt'erent seasons, in a series of 

 papers, the materials for which are in his note 

 books. There is little that is really new; but the 

 vast dirterence between the birds here and at the 

 east, was quite striking to me, and may be in- 

 slructive to my fellow-workers. 



The Northern Shrike as a Singer. 



liY ( . K. AVERII.I,, .TK., BRIDGEPORT, CONN. 



• I think most of our books on Ornithology over- 

 look the song of the Northern Shrike. I have not 

 heard it mentioned excejjt by John Biuroughs in 

 his delightful book " Locusts and Wild Honey." 



But it is not unusual to hear them sing and they 

 are certainly gifted in power of execution, as the 

 human vocalists say, although the quality of tone 

 is inferior to that of most of our songsters. 



The song of one of them is still fresh in my 

 mind. I heard him on March 4th, this year, at 

 sunrise singing frimi the top of a cedar tree in 

 a field. I walked up to the tree, and when he 

 Hew, I saw that he carried something with him 

 about the size of a small bird or mouse. He had 

 not got a rod from the tree when he dropped it, 

 but immediately pounced down and picked it up. 

 I hurried back to the house, got the gun and was 

 back again in about half an hour. He was still 

 singing from the top of a tall chestnut tree in a 

 grove close by where I had first seen him. I had 

 no difficulty in walking within easy shooting dis- 

 tance, but belore shooting stopped to listen to the 

 soug. Although I stood for some time listening, 

 he made no break or pause, but went right on as 

 if there were no tire about him. I cannot liken 

 the song to that of any of our song birds. It was 

 somewhat after the style of a Brown Thrush's, 

 but the tone was much less musical, and it must 

 be confessed, was often s(iueaky. But fref|uently 

 there was thrown in a note almost exactly like 

 the ringing, musical tone that the Blue Jay often 

 utters. I cut him open on getting home and took 

 out a lot of the fur and some ribs of a field mouse. 



A gentleman living in the outskirts of our city 

 tells me that he has often heard them sing, and 

 that they imitate the songs of other birds for the 

 IKiipose of attracting them. I do not put any 

 faith in this notion. I am convinced that the one 

 I have just told about sang out of pure physical 

 enjoyment, or exuberance of spirits, or what- 

 ever it is that makes a bird sing. Certainly he 

 had no ditticulty in getting his food, and when I 

 first heard him was carrying his breakfast aromid 

 with him, and afterwards was singing with it in 

 Ills inside. 



Three or lour days later. I saw in a small Elm 

 tree by the road side a (ioldflnch stuck in among 

 some small twigs that grew out from the trunk 

 about len feet from the ground. I climbed up 

 and pulled it down, for it was wedged in too 

 tightly to shake down. It was dead of course. 

 Qn taking oft' the skin there was no sign of injury 

 except that the neck was broken two or three 

 joints from the head. Without doubt this was 

 the work of a Shrike. 



Since then I ha\e only seen one Shrike and 

 tliat in the middle of the day. He did not favor 

 me with a song, but sat on a Sumach bush mo- 

 tionless, but for the movement of his long tail 

 which went up and down like a Pewee's. Once 

 he got down fi-om his perch and picked up some 



