14 



JOURNAL OP MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



speedily released and the law of ne- 

 cessity prompted me to a happy thought. 

 I have for years carried as a compan- 

 ion to my pocket knife a small pair 

 of scissors. No sooner thought of 

 than I had them in my hand and with 

 them I very carefully snipped one of 

 the coils close to the birds neck, sever- 

 ing it completely and yet without 

 harming a feather. Instantly there 

 was a transformation scene. The rear 

 half of the snake lay in the grass at 

 my feet while the shrike went through 

 my hand like a shot and was flying 

 away to the top of an apple tree with 

 the other half dangling from its claw 

 which was so firmly imbedded that he 

 could not shake it off. 



I watched him from his elevated 

 perch for some time and he never 

 moved apparently a muscle or a feath- 

 er. There he sat thinking it all over 

 and I was forced to smile as I 

 imagined he was wondering if he had 

 simply been "seeing snakes" like ordi- 

 nary human beings. 



My explanation of it all is this, that 

 finding the snake in the grass the 

 shrike had pecked its head until he 

 supposed it was dead and then pick- 

 ing it up to carry away it proved to 

 be more alive than dead and throwing 

 its tail about in an aimless way, it 

 happened to light on the bird's neck 

 and he took a few turns just for luck. 

 The shrike in its struggles set one 

 claw in the snakes back so deeply he 

 could not withdraw it and it then be- 

 came a case of "nip and tuck." How 

 long the bird had been undergoing the 

 squeezing process I don't know, but 

 probably not long as I had passed 

 that locality but a short time before. 



I am strongly of the opinion that 

 this particular shrike will give snakes 

 a wide berth after his narrow escape 

 from such a novel but relentless 

 guillotine 



FRANK T. NOBLE. 



Nov. 29, 1901. 



ONE YELLOW WARBLER FAMILY. 



In the latter part of May, 1901, I 

 noticed a pair of Yellow Warblers in 

 a lilac bush directly under my cham- 

 ber window. They seemed so busy 

 I went close to the window to see 

 what they were about. I very soon 

 saw that they intended to build a nest 

 there, and in fact, had all ready be- 

 gun operations. 



To the casual observer the male 

 and female birds would look alike, but 

 there is quite a difference. The male, 

 as in most birds, is higher colored and 

 in this particular case had a quick, 

 nervous way of moving about much 

 different from the female. 



The birds soon became accustomed 

 to having me watch them for I went 

 to see them at least once a day and 

 when I had nothing else to do I would 

 sit and watch them by the hour. 



The female seemed to have more 

 skill in nest building than the male, 

 and she fashioned it to suit her taste. 

 The male brought the larger part of 

 the material and she, sitting in the 

 nest, wove the straws into place with 

 exquisite neatness. The male bird would 

 sit and watch her with a straw in 

 his beak, and sometimes delayed the 

 progress of the work just to make 

 love to her. 



At last the nest was ready for its 

 lining, and imagine my surprise when 

 I saw them lining it with some red 

 wool I had thrown out of my work 

 room window. They surely showed 

 good taste. The nest when finished 

 looked so smooth and pretty I was 

 tempted to take it. 



Now that the nest was all com- 

 pleted I began to look for some eggs, 

 and it was not long before I saw a 

 beautiful, speckled, blue egg and in a 

 short time another, then another, 

 until five were laid, I did not expect 



