ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 23 



of the good news called me up over the telephone for verification of the 

 reports. In short my pair of Grosbeaks aroused more genuine interest in 

 the study of birds in this locality in one season than all the bird books 

 hitherto published." 



Mr. J. J. Schafer writes: A good many years ago the Northern Shrike 

 used to come here and stay all winter, and was seen to kill and impale 

 small birds on hedge thorns. One Shrike that stayed here one winter 

 chased and caught English Sparrows. The Migrant Shrike comes here 

 early in the spring and breeds. One spring a pair of Bluebirds built a nest 

 in a box on a half-dead apple tree, and about the time the Bluebirds were 

 incubating, a pair of Migrant Shrikes built a nest on a limb about six feet 

 above the Bluebird box. From then on, I could often hear the Bluebirds 

 complaining, and sometimes saw the Shrikes chasing them. The Shrikes 

 finally killed the female Bluebird, but the male succeeded in raising their 

 young. When the young Bluebirds came out of their box, the Shrikes 

 killed them ; they did not impale them, but left them lying on the ground 

 after they had eaten some of the flesh from the neck. I never found the 

 body of the female Bluebird, but her feathers were all lying on the ground 

 below the tree. A dead Vesper Sparrow was also found lying on the ground 

 near the Shrike's nest, with some of the flesh eaten from its neck. Once 

 the Shrikes were seen to impale a piece of mouse skin on a dead limb. 

 When the Shrikes first came in the spring, they would sit on clods and 

 cornstalks to watch for earthworms and bugs while the ground was being 

 disced for sowing small grain. It is my opinion that the Migrant Shrike 

 only kills other birds when they get too close to the Shrike's nest during the 

 breeding season. They are a bad bird to have near the house, as the other 

 birds are greatly alarmed about them. 



Forest Breemfield, Bethany, writes (in the "Decatur Herald") : 



"While harrowing down cornstalks a few weeks ago, I watched a 

 Shrike who would perch himself in some dead trees at the end of the field 

 and watch for mice that were frightened from their nests by the harrow. 

 The shrike would fly along behind and above me some 40 or 50 feet and 

 every time a mouse was plowed out, the Shrike would get it. At one end 

 of the field in some thorn bushes the Shrike had several mice impaled on 

 the different thorns. There were two Shrikes that seemed to work the 

 whole field. I am sure that mice constitute four-fifths of the food of the 

 Shrike in early spring before the nesting time of small birds. 



"A pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks paid daily visits last summer to 

 my potato patch. They were very tame and I was able to get close to 

 them and could easily see them getting the potato bugs. I was afraid to 

 poison the bugs for fear of killing the birds which ate them. The Gros- 

 beaks kept the bugs thinned down until they did not hurt the potato crop. 



"The only place in central Illinois where I have ever seen the Horned 

 Lark is three miles west of Blue Mound. I saw several of them in the 

 spring of 1917 and 1918. They flew 25 to 30 feet into the air and de- 

 scended on 'set wing' singing very beautifully. It took me two years to 

 learn their name." 



Mrs. W. B. Olds of Decatur fed a baby Grosbeak potato bugs to the 

 evident pleasure of the bird. It thrived on the diet. She saw Grosbeaks 

 apparently hunting for potato bugs in a patch free from the pest. 



