THE OOLOGIST. 



b7 



bably receive several in reaching the 

 nest. 



You will notice how large and bulky 

 the nest is in comparison with the bird,, 

 and how thick the lining is, the better 

 to withstand the inclemency of the 

 weather at so early a nesting date. 



The bird's home is also well protected 

 against enemies, placed as it is, in the 

 centre of a thorn bush and being built 

 externally of thorns and other material. 

 But what a commotion you have creat- 

 ed through your investigations. The 

 female on leaving the nest is immed- 

 iately joined by her partner, and to- 

 gether they give vent to their feelings 

 by snapping their bills, at the same time 

 emitting a hissing sound similiar to 

 that of the Cuckoo and Thrasher. 



If the nest contains incubated eggs or 

 young the parents become greatly dis- 

 turbed flying about the intruder in a 

 very menacing manner. 



The Shrike has earned the vpell de- 

 served appelation of butcherbird from 

 the manner in which it obtains its food. 

 Although resembling birds cf prey in 

 its choice of food, it differs from them 

 in its manner of eating it. 



Birds of the Raptores order devour 

 their food as soon as procured, whilst 

 the Shrike impales it on some thorn or 

 other sharp projection, and in epicur- 

 ean style, after devouring some dainty 

 morsels about the head, presumably 

 the brain, leaves it to become tender 

 and gamey. 



No doubt this habit of spitting its 

 prey also enables the bird to devour it 

 at ease and leisure and secures it from 

 animals. I have often come across the 

 larder of a Shrike in some thick haw- 

 thorn or again on a barbed wire fence. 



Sometimes the provisions consist of a 

 mere beetle or two, but more often it is 

 a small bird or a field mouse and once 

 I found four young Goldfinches with 

 the mother bird, hung up side by side 

 close to their late home. 



The Whiterumped Shrike usually 



arrive here sometime during the first 

 week of April. They begin building 

 about the middle of April and the nests 

 contain full sets of eggs about the last 

 of the month or first week in -May, my 

 earliest record being the 24th of April, 

 1898 when I took a set of six fresh eggs 

 from a nest in a Hawthorn bush. 



They lay a second time about the be- 

 ginning of June. On June 6, 1896 I 

 found a nest placed on a horizontal 

 sloping branch of an oak, in an open 

 field, containing six fresh eggs. 



The number of eggs laid at a time, is 

 almost invariably six, though rarely 

 and chiefly in second sets, Ave. 



Out of a number of nests personally 

 examined, the eggs were of a yellowish 

 white color, thickly spotted over the 

 entire surface with several shades of 

 grayish brown varying to yellowish. 



In a few instances, however, the eggs 

 were of a pure white ground color 

 sparingly dotted with light yellowish 

 brotvn, being very distinct from the 

 first variety. Lewis M. Terrill, 



Montreal, Que. 



Pet Bird Show. 



On Thanksgiving Day the first pet 

 bird show of this country opened, 

 under the auspices of the New York 

 Ornithological Society, at New York 

 City. It is claimed there were over 

 3,500 birdii on exhibition, comprising 

 nearly every kind of pet bird known to 

 this land and foreign countries. Thei'e 

 vp-ere larks, linnets, goldfinches, thrush- 

 es, nightingales, many varieties of can- 

 aries, including Belgian canaries, and 

 one bird which sings Yankee Doodle, 

 and a parrot which speaks several 

 different languages. Mules, hybrids, 

 which are offspring of canaries and 

 goldfinches, and which fanciers declare 

 excel their parents in singing but do 

 not breed, were exhibited. Enthusias- 

 tic bird breeders tell some curious stor- 

 ies to account for the physical peculiar* 



