166 BIRDS OF OHIO. 
struggles and sufferings of their victims like veritable bar- 
barians. That this is a libel on the character of the shrikes 
any one may prove by studying them at first hand. They 
are pretty fair singers, but the summer form is seldom heard 
singing unless one happens upon the performer unobserved. 
The Northern Shrike sings from his tree-top perch in the 
midst of a snowstorm in midwinter. All shrikes are soli- 
tary birds except while nesting and for some time after the 
young have left the nest. 
228. (621.) Lawnius poreatis Vieill. 72. 
Northern Shrike. 
Synonyms: Lanius septentrionalis, Collyrio borealis, Collurio 
borealis. 
Great Northern Shrike, Butcher-bird, Great American 
Shrike, Great Butcher Shrike. & 
Kirtland, Ohio Geol. Surv., 1838, 163, 181. 
“ This solitary shrike is a winter resident over the entire 
state, but it is irregular south and rare everywhere, except 
occasionally along the lake front. It visits towns and vil- 
lages during extreme weather for the sake of the hordes of 
English Sparrows. In the fields and woods it is always on 
the lookout for field mice or other rodents, and unwary spar- 
rows. 
The food of this bird consists of birds 35 per cent., insects 
40 per cent., mice 25 per cent. Of the birds many are En- 
glish Sparrows. While the other birds are useful species they 
constitute less than 25 per cent. of the whole food. It seems 
clear, therefore, that, contrary to his reputation, the Butch- 
er-bird is one of our useful winter visitors and should be 
encouraged to visit the settlements where English Sparrows 
are to be so easily found. The habit of impaling its victims 
on thorns has grown out of the necessity of storing food 
against a time of scarcity, and is not an indication of the 
savage or barbarous instincts so often attributed to these 
birds. 
The Northern Shrike reaches northern Ohio about the 
first of October and the southern counties a week later. It 
sometimes tarries until the first of April in Lorain county. | 
