LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE 77 



squawk. The nest of the pair is usually well 

 hidden in thickets or bushes, with from five to 

 seven grayish, spotted eggs to guard. 



In October Shrikes get together as do the 

 Mockingbirds, in small bands, though they are 

 not wholly migratory. The sight of half a dozen 

 or more of these handsome birds sitting on a 

 tree in the morning autumn sunshine is worth 

 getting out of doors early to see. 



This Shrike furnishes an interesting example 

 of nature's fine and accurate adjustment of the 

 balance between different forms of life. He kills 

 small birds in as spectacular and cruel a manner 

 as do some so-called sportsmen, it is true; but 

 in a quieter way he is efficient in keeping down 

 two of the worst enemies the birds have, — 

 snakes and field-mice. For some of the small 

 snakes he picks up might certainly grow into 

 large ones from which even a Woodpecker's hole 

 affords no protection to young birds; and as to 

 field-mice, they are so fond of the tidbit of a 

 bird's egg that I often wonder how a pair of 

 Meadowlarks or Ground Warblers ever guard 

 their family to the time of hatching. Logger- 

 head is a terror to a flock of innocent Field 

 Sparrows; they cry out and flutter away for 

 their lives at his descent. But perhaps he is 

 their benefactor in default of other protection — 

 as the robber barons of the Middle Ages were 



