AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 153 



wanted to climb it. I had climbed it the year before, and had found a 

 nest of little fuzzy chicken hawks. So I started up the perpendicular 

 trunk (devoid of branches until near the top,) and with the help of a 

 friendly grapevine, managed to ascend to the bulky structure. This 

 was lined with fine roots and some of the sticks in it were quite large. 

 I found three eggs, about the size of a hen's, and bluish white with 

 large blotches of brown. We could hear the hawks off in the timber, 

 making a shrill, loud noise as if calling for help, but what bird would 

 like to help a hawk, unless it would be another hawk? 



We found several little blue herons nests in a wild plum thicket. 

 The nests were close to the ground, but exceedingly difficult to reach 

 on account of the thorns. They are light structures, the eggs being 

 visible from the ground, through many cracks between the sticks. The 

 little blue heron is truly a beautiful bird, though its legs are very long, 

 also its neck. The largest bird I know of about here is the Great Blue 

 Heron. I generally put up boxes for the wrens, but the martins have 

 never yet decided to build in them, probably on account of their being 

 so low- On these cold mornings the chickadees, nuthatches, downy 

 and hairy woodpeckers delight in a piece of suet. 



Paul Ravlin, LaPorte City, la. 



One day in May while plowing corn, I repeatedly saw a shrike (in 

 this locality called a mouse hawk) driving, or rather chasing some pur- 

 ple grackles. The shrike seemed to have a certain portion of the field 

 surrounding a small thicket (probably in which his nest was situated) 

 for his feeding ground. There were three grackles hunting grubs for 

 their young (which were in an orchard about a quarter of a mile dis- 

 tant) who would persist in returning to the shrikes portion of the field. 

 The grackles were continually on the watch out for the shrike. He 

 (the shrike) used a large tree near by for his look-out, and all at once 

 without warning he would dart out and skim along the ground, almost 

 touching the earth with his wings as he flew, The grackles would 

 hardly ever see him until he was right upon them, and their large yel- 

 low eyes would fairly bulge out with terror as they flew swiftly away, 

 only to repeat the same performance much to the annoyance of the 

 shrike. I have also seen the shrikes when looking for their prey, either 

 insects or mice, hover in the air after the manner of small hawks till at 

 length they dart down, secure their prey, and fly away to some neigh- 

 boring tree to eat it. 



I have also seen this fall several small thorn trees on which were at 

 least a dozen large grasshoppers impaled upon the thorns, which I 

 suppose was the work of the shrikes. 



Percy I. Phillips, Belleville, Ills. 



