t 
Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored 
seen, for the winter birds have a delightfully social manner, so 
that a colony of these Free masons is apt to contain not only both 
kinds of nuthatches and chickadees, but kinglets and brown 
creepers as well. It shares the family habit of walking about the 
trees, head downward, and running along the under side of limbs 
like a fly. By Thanksgiving Day the guank! quank! of the 
white-breasted species is answered by the faz-tai-tait! of the red- 
breasted cousin in the orchard, where the family party is cele- 
brating with an elaborate menu of slugs, insects’ eggs, and oily 
seeds from the evergreen trees. 
For many years this nuthatch, a more northern species than 
the white-breasted bird, was thought to be only a spring and 
autumn visitor, but latterly it is credited with habits like its 
congener’s in nearly every particular. 
Loggerhead Shrike 
(Lanius ludovicianus) Shrike family 
Length—8.5 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. 
Male and Female—Upper parts gray; narrow black line across 
forehead, connecting small black patches on sides of head at 
base of bill. Wings and tail black, plentifully marked with 
white, the outer tail feathers often being entirely white and 
conspicuous in flight. Underneath white or very light gray. 
Bill hooked and hawk-like. 
Range—Eastern United States to the plains. 
Migrations—May. October. Summer resident. 
It is not easy, even at a slight distance, to distinguish the 
loggerhead from the Northern shrike. Both have the pernicious 
habit of killing insects and smaller birds and impaling them on 
thorns; both have the peculiarity of flying, with strong, vigorous 
flight and much wing-flapping, close along the ground, then 
suddenly rising to a tree, on the lookout for prey. Their harsh, 
unmusical call-notes are similar too, and their hawk-like method 
of dropping suddenly upon a victim on the ground below is iden- 
tical. Indeed, the same description very nearly answers for both 
birds. But there is one very important difference. While the 
Northern shrike is a winter visitor, the loggerhead, being his South- 
ern counterpart, does not arrive until after the frost is out of the 
ground, and he can be sure of a truly warm welcome. A lesser 
86 
