244 



THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



ous and an audaucious wooer. The main 

 point is, however, that in operations of this 

 kind he has to ' deal with no shrinking, 

 terrified Lark or Sparrow, glad to make any 

 terms with the tyrant, but with a bird who 

 proves to be his match in every particular. 

 Set a Shrike to tame a shrew — pit a pirate 

 against a virago — and the whole neighborhood 

 may be congratulated when the stormy scene 

 is over. About the time the courtship grows 

 a little monotonous, you may look through 

 the convenient thicket, where the saplings, 

 bushes, and weeds are grown up close together, 

 or along yonder hedgerow, with its lattice- 

 work of creepers and green brier, to find the 

 nesting-place of the redoubtable couple. It 

 will not be hard to find, for the birds build 

 low, and make a structure as bulky in pro- 

 portion to their size as a Hawk's nest. It is 

 commonly built in a bush or sapling, within 

 arms' reach from the ground, the nest proper 

 resting upon an extensive basement of stout 

 twigs, rather loosely laid together and bristling 

 in all directions. Upon such a support, the 

 inner nest is built, of an endless variety of 

 soft, fibrous, vegetable substances, such as 

 grass-stems, weed-tops, bark-strips, catkins, 

 leaves, mosses, lichens, &c, all matted 

 together in such quantity that the cavity 

 within is greatly reduced by the thickness of 

 the walls. Some nests, also contain feathers 

 or fur felted in with the rest of the materials. 

 There seems to be a good deal of difference in 

 the structure of the nest, not so much accord- 

 ing to the species, as to the climate. The 

 northern-built nests are usually found to be 

 more compactly built, with a greater quantity 

 of soft, warm material, than those of the 

 Loggerhead in the Southern States, which are 

 smaller, more open, and rather loosely woven 

 than closely felted. In such a bulky and 

 rather rude receptacle, though a very sub- 

 stantial one, no fewer than five or six eggs 

 may be deposited, for a Shrike is as much in 

 earnest in these matters as in the other affairs 

 of life. These vary in size, of course, accord- 

 ing to. the species, the eggs of the Northern 

 Shrike being about 1.10 by 0.80 inches, 

 while those of the White-rumped, or Logger- 

 bead, only measure, on an average, little if 

 any over an inch in length by three-fourths 

 as much in breadth. They are shaped and 

 colored exactly alike, however, being of 

 rounded oval form, quite blunt at the smaller 

 end, and so profuselj 7 speckled or marbled all 

 over with various brownish, reddish, and 



purplish shades that the greenish-gray ground- 

 color is scarcely perceptible. Should nothing 

 go amiss, it is not long (Audubon says fifteen 

 days in the case of the borealis) before the 

 nest is crowded with a clamorous and vor- 

 acious brood, whose wants are an incessant 

 tax upon the energy and devotion of the 

 parent birds. The care of the youngsters 

 would seem to give them all they can attend to, 

 leaving no time for house-cleaning ; for, should 

 you come upon a family of Shrikes, well 

 grown and soon to leave the nest, you would 

 find things in an extremely untidy condition. 

 One nestful after another being thus turned 

 loose upon the world, the tribe of Shrikes 

 waxes. Being prolific, and having few enemies 

 besides men, they are common birds in most 

 portions of the country, and we readily per- 

 ceive that they play an important role in 

 nature's economy. I must confess that I have 

 not drawn altogether the most flattering 

 picture, even though I have given the doughty 

 warriors full credit for their military oper- 

 ations ; and I am therefore the more anxious 

 to show what extremely useful birds they are, 

 from the most practical standpoint possible. 

 So far as the Shrike's relations with ourselves 

 are concerned, the balance is entirely on one 

 side of the ledger. We are enormously in 

 debt to these efficient destroyers of noxious 

 insects and injurious quadrupeds. Though 

 they kill many a bird we should wish to live, 

 the whole result in this regard is practically 

 nothing to offset the check they put in the 

 aggregate upon grasshoppers and other un- 

 desirable forms of insect life. Nay, more, 

 the Shrike is entitled to our special thanks 

 and most favorable consideration, for his 

 interference in our behalf against the bird-pest 

 of this country — the European Sparrow. In 

 taking counsel with herself, that she might 

 right the balance of her forces, which we so 

 fautously interfered with when the Sparrow 

 madness seizod us, she bethought herself of 

 the Shrikes, and in her own mysterious way 

 she summoned these trusty allies to her aid. 

 The Shrikes, nothing loth, went right to work, 

 and were abating the nuisance very percepti- 

 bly, when Bostonese idiocy confronted them 

 and cut short their righteous warfare. Men 

 shot them down in the very acts of destroying 

 Sparrow after Sparrow; at each murderous 

 discharge of the gun, a noble Shrike was 

 martyred in doing his best for the good of the 

 community." 



