150 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 9-No. 12 



51 Turkey Buzzard, (Cathartcs aura,) common. 



52 Band-tailed Pigeon, (Columbafasciata,) common from 



15th of September to middle of March. 

 *83 Mourning Dove, (Zmaidura carol in ensis,) common. 

 «S4 Californian Quail, (Lophortyx California!,) common. 



85 Great Blue Heron, (Ardea Iwrodias,) common. 



86 American Bittern, (Botaurus lentiginosis,) quite com- 



mon. 

 *87 Killdeer, (Oxycchus vociferus,) common. 

 87<tSnowy Plover, (.■Egialites cantianus nivosus,) saw two 



young in season of 'Si. 

 S8 English Snipe, (Gallinago media,) common from No- 

 vember 1st to middle of March. 

 89 Virginian Kail, (Ralhis virginianus,) rare. 

 "90 American Coot, (Falica americana,) common. 

 *91 Mallard, (Anas boscas,) common. 



*92 Ruddy Duck, (Erismatura rubida,) common in winter ; 

 about a dozen pair remain here the whole year at 

 Corcoran's Lagoon. 

 "93 Brandt's Cormorant, (Phalacrocorax penicillatus,) com- 



"94 Baird's Cormorant, (Phalacrocorax eiolaceus rcaplcn- 



dens,) common. 

 95 Royal Tern, (Sterna regia,) very rare ; shot two the 19th 



of March, 1884. 

 '90 Pigeon Guillemot, (Uria columba,) common. 



I have personally collected the eggs of 

 those marked with an asterisk. There are 

 a great 'many water birds here of various 

 kinds, that I am not at all familiar with, 

 never having made a study of them. I am 

 positive of the identity of all the birds 

 above named. The remarks upon them 

 are from my own observations. — Joseph 

 Skirm. 



Why do Shrikes Hang Up their Food ? 



I have often seen lizzards, grasshoppers, 

 etc., impaled on thorns or securely wedged 

 in the forks of some twig, by Shrikes ; but 

 as far as I am aware, no one has satisfac- 

 torily explained why this is done. 



The Shrikes are rather dainty in eating 

 and never, I believe, bolt their food entire. 

 Even grasshoppers and other small prey 

 are lodged in forks of limbs and torn into 

 pieces before being eaten. 



Now in eating a bird or mouse, the 

 Shrike cannot use its weak legs to secure 

 the prey, while tearing it to j>ieces with the 

 powerful beak, after the manner of Hawks : 

 and so it must resort to some artificial 

 means of holding its prey. I once kept a 

 Shrike in confinement. On the bottom of 

 the cage I placed a few small limbs for a 



perch. For food I gave it the bodies of 

 birds as fast as I skinned them. "When 

 one was placed in the cage, the Shrike 

 would take it in its bill, carry it to the 

 limbs and placing it securely in a forked 

 branch would brace itself with its fset on 

 one of the limbs and tear off small bits and 

 eat them; thus showing that the object in 

 placing the prey in the fork was to secure 

 it in a steady position. — A. JO. Parhhurst. 

 Sun Jose, Gul. 



Yellow-headed Blackbird, {2£anthocep- 

 halus icterocephalus). — An abundant bird 

 in some portions of the Territory, inhabit- 

 ing marshes and wet prairies. At Fort 

 Laramie I found a breeding place and se- 

 cured fifteen nest complements of eggs and 

 a few nests. The nests were built in the 

 tall rushes of a slough and formed of rush 

 leaves of the year before, very nicely 

 woven together and lined with the same 

 material in fine pieces. They were firmly 

 attached to three or four rushes and built 

 very close to the water among a colony of 

 Red-wings, (Ageheus phceniceus). The 

 male is a very handsome bird. Black; 

 head (excepting lores) neck and the upper 

 part of breast yellow, large white patch on 

 wings, length 11 inches, wing 5£, tail 4£, 

 female brownish-black, no white on wing, 

 considerably smaller than the male ; length 

 9 inches or a little more. Have never 

 seen the young, but they are said to be 

 "much like the female," (Coues). The 

 male sometimes has slight touches of yel- 

 low on belly and legs. It is the hand- 

 somest of all black-birds, and almost 

 entirely a western bird It has been 

 cpioted from Greenland ; Reinhart. — Chas. 

 T. Morrison, Fort McKinney, Wyo. Ter. 



Woodpeckers. — Our smaller Woodpeck- 

 ers are sometimes accused of injuring the 

 apple and other fruit trees, but the depre- 

 dator is probably the larger and rarer yel- 

 low-bellied sijecies. In the fall I caught 

 one of these in the act of sinking long 

 rows of his little wells in the limb of an 



