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The Loggerhead is a bird of open, brushy pastures and hillsides. 

 Thorn-apple trees, cropped and trimmed by cattle until dense and repellent , 

 are its favourite nesting sites and in such neighbourhoods it can usually 

 be seen on some commanding perch, such as the tip of a dead sapling, or 

 a telegraph-wire, keenly regarding the surrounding country. The impaling 

 of prey is not quite as strongly developed a habit in this species as in the 

 previous one, probably because it is more insectivorous and can handle 

 much of its smaller prey without so doing. At any rate evidence in the 

 shape of remains stuck on thorns is decidedly rare in haunts where the 

 species is common and where they would be expected to be plentiful. The 

 song of the Loggerhead Shrike is quite musical and pleasing, but the 

 call-notes are harsh and discordant. 



Economic Status. The food habits of the Loggerhead are similar 

 to those of the Northern Shrike, differing only as would be expected in a 

 smaller and weaker bird and a summer rather than a winter resident. 

 Thus we find fewer birds and mammals and more insects are taken, indeed 

 during the height of the insect season insects seem to constitute the greater 

 part of its food. Early in the summer great numbers of beetles are eaten, 

 useful and harmful forms being about equally divided in numbers. Later, 

 grasshoppers and crickets form a large proportion of the food, but numbers 

 of caterpillars, many of them hairy, cutworms, some wasps, spiders, and 

 other insect forms are also taken. The food of the species throughout 

 the year is regarded by the United States Biological Survey as being 

 beneficial in the ratio of 4 to 1. 



FAMILY — VIBEONIDjE. VIREOS OR GREENLETS. 



General Description. Small, warbler-like birds generally coloured in green and white 

 with more or less yellow in softly suffused masses and without much definite marking. 

 The bill is perceptibly notched and hooked at the tip much like that of the Shrike (Figure 

 56, page 27), but is on a much smaller and lighter scale. 



Distinctions. The Vireos are most apt to be mistaken for Warblers which in habit, 

 size, and general coloration they resemble. The bills, however, are stouter, more strongly 

 arched on the culmen, higher for the width, and more evidently hooked and notched 

 at the tip. The Yellow-breasted Chat has a bill that might answer this description in 

 outline, but it is not hooked nor has it any indication of notch at tip. 



Field Marks. In addition to specific markings, which form the best guide to species, 

 the Vireos can be recognized by their warbler-like habits but slower and more sluggish 

 movements, peering under leaves and gleaning from the branches and twigs with less 

 activity. 



The Vireos constitute a small family peculiar to America. Three 

 genera occur in Canada, represented by six species. 



Economic Status. Economically the Vireos can be treated together 

 as they are similar in their food habits. Their food consists of 91 per cent 

 of insects and the remainder of fruits that are almost without exception 

 wild varieties. The insects taken are among the most harmful, including 

 scales and other close-lying species that no birds but the careful, close- 

 peering Vireos ordinarily seek. They are among our more useful birds. 



