The Loggerhead Shrike in Massachusetts 



BY JANE ATHERTON WRIGHT. Greenfield. Mass. 



With photographs from nature by Mrs. A. T. Beais 



WHILE driving through Greenfield Meadows with a friend, on July 

 6, 1901, our attention was attracted by a bird that flew from a 

 growth of underbrush close beside the road to an old apple-tree 

 about ten rods away. As it alighted on an exposed branch, we saw that it 

 was an unfamiliar bird whose bluish gray and black markings were plainly 

 visible. 



I had so long been watching for the Great Northern Shrike, in winter, 

 that, as a nearer view was obtained, I felt reasonably sure the stranger must 

 be a Shrike; but a Shrike in that locality at that season of the year was a 

 thing unknown, and creeping cautiously nearer the tree I looked more 

 closely at the bird, which sat calmly eyeing me, apparently free from all con- 

 cern. Yes, the black lores, wings barred with white, and black tail with 

 the outer feathers white! It could be no other than a Shrike, and the 

 Loggerhead, too, for close scrutiny showed the narrow black line at the 

 base of the bill connecting the lores. And the flight! "A piece of black 

 and white patchwork fluttering in the air," Olive Thorne Miller has de- 

 scribed it. Her words returned to me, and more than ever I felt assured 

 that by some strange chance the Loggerhead Shrike was, in truth, before 

 me. Then from the other side of the tree appeared another of the rare 

 beauties and without alarm scanned us curiously. 



The drive home was accomplished in a marvelously short time, and, 

 after a hurried reference to a text -book, by means of which I verified my 

 hopes, I hastened back, fearing lest the bird should be gone; but, as we 

 neared the tree, there, in the road beside it was a dainty little fellow clad 

 in black and gray, who, on our approach, fluttered, hopped and tumbled to- 

 ward the shelter of the apple-tree, until, when directly beneath it, a short 

 and uncertain flight concealed him among the friendly branches. 



Our caution in approaching the tree was unnecessary, for, when we 

 were beneath it, movements here and there betokened that the tree was 

 the hiding place of more than one fledgling; and, one by one, four young 

 Shrike were discovered. They were, indeed, hardly distinguishable from 

 the adult Shrikes save by their shorter wings and their inability to move 

 about in the tree with ease. 



And now for the nest, which we felt sure must be located in the tree. 

 Carefully and slowly we looked it all over, especially that part about seven 

 feet from the ground, — the distance my books mentioned as the usual height 

 at which the Shrikes built, — but our efforts were in vain and the darkness 

 put a stop to all further search. 



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