NORTHERN SHRIKE 341 



tain-like look, and hear their seringo note, as if made 

 by their swift flight through the air. They have been 

 seen a week or two. 



[See also under General and Miscellaneous, p. 429]. 



NORTHERN SHRIKE 



Feb. 25, 1839. the shrike 



Hark ! hark ! from out the thickest fog 

 Warbles with might and main 

 The fearless shrike, as all agog 

 To find in fog his gain. 



His steady sails he never furls 

 At any time o' year, 

 And, perched now on Winter's curls, 

 He whistles in his ear. 



Dec. 24, 1850. Saw a shrike pecking to pieces a small 

 bird, apparently a snowbird. At length he took him up 

 in his bill, almost half as big as himself, and flew slowly 

 off with his prey dangling from his beak. I find that I 

 had not associated such actions with my idea of birds. 

 It was not birdlike. 



Feb. 3, 1856. Returning, saw near the Island a shrike 

 glide by, cold and blustering as it was, with a remark- 

 ably even and steady sail or gliding motion like a hawk, 

 eight or ten feet above the ground, and alight in a tree, 

 from which at the same instant a small bird, perhaps 

 a creeper or nuthatch, flitted timidly away. The shrike 

 was apparently in pursuit. 



Nov. 29, 1858. I see a living shrike caught to-day in 

 the barn of the Middlesex House. 



