The White-rumped Shrikes 
commanding station, if it be no better than 
a weed-top, this Shrike searches the ground 
with his eye until he detects a suspicious 
movement of insect, mouse, or bird. The 
bird can spot a cricket at sixty feet, Tyler 
says, and I think that is well within the mark. 
Then he darts toward his quarry, settles, and 
strikes with his beak, or else skirmishes nimbly 
in mid-air if the creature seeks to elude him. 
From a successful foray the Shrike returns to 
devour at leisure; but if the victim is large 
or ungainly, he must have help from a sharp 
crotch, or a splinter, or the barb of a fence- 
wire even, to hold it; for here again he is no 
hawk, and does not know how to clutch with 
his feet. 
In flight, the Shrike moves either by 
successive plunges and noisy ascensions, or 
else pitches down from his perch and wings 
rapidly over the surface of the vegetation. 
He does not exhibit much local attachment, 
but rather roves restlessly from post to post, so 
as not to wear out his welcome with the crick¬ 
ets. All the Shrike’s operations are direct and 
business-like; and if he pauses a moment to look over his shoulder as 
you whirl by in your automobile, you get an impression of a very alert 
bird-person,— no loafer, but a Twentieth Century brother in feathers. 
The nervous energy which characterizes the California Shrike has 
got him into trouble with the ladies. He has to be doing something, 
so when his appetite is satisfied, he just goes right on killing—for the 
fun of it. He doesn’t waste the game, exactly—at least he doesn’t 
mean to—for having killed a mouse or a grasshopper, he hunts up a 
splinter or a thorn, and neatly impales his victim upon it. He might 
be hungry some time, you know. That the bird does occasionally return 
to feast upon this stored-up provender is pretty clearly known; but at 
the best his killings are far in excess of his needs. 
Insects, according to Professor Beal, form more than eighty per 
cent of the bird’s food. These include a few useful ground beetles; 
but the consumption of pests—moths, caterpillars, stink-bugs, crickets, 
and, above all, grasshoppers—is so enormous that we count him among 
the most useful of birds, and are even prepared to forgive him for 
occasional inroads upon the bird-world. 
Taken in Merced County Photo by the Author 
AN ANXIOUS FATHER 
594 
