VERTEBRATES EATEN BY THE LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. 21 



Following is a list of birds reported to have been killed by the 

 loggerhead : 



English sparrow {Passer doniesticus) . 



Tree sparrow {Spizella monticola). 



Yellow-winged sparrow {Ammodramus savannarum passermus). 



Song sparrow (Melospiza fasciata). 



Western chipping sparrow {Spizella socialis arizonce)J 



White-throated sparrow {Zonotrichia alhieollis)." 



Young chicken. 3 



Canary {Serinus canarius).* 



Chimney Swift {Clxcetura pelagica).* 



Ground dove {ColumhigalUna passerina terrestris). 



Bell's vireo ( Vireo ielU).^ 



Snow bunting {Plectrophenax nivalis).^ 



Blue-gray gnatcatcher {Polioptila ccerulea).^ 



MAMMALS EATEN BY THE LOGGERHEAD. 



From the laboratory investigation there is no evidence to show that 

 shrews are eaten, but Mr. Robert Ridgway has seen shrews that had 

 been impaled by the loggerhead. Mice are often found in stomachs of 

 birds killed in winter, at which season they form 50 percent, and for the 

 whole year 16 j)ercent, of the food. The pretty white-footed mice are 

 favorites. Bones, skin, and two tails of this mouse were taken from 

 one stomach. The loggerhead is a good mouser during cold weather, 

 but owing to its weaker bill is not so successful as the butcherbird in 

 its battles with the large meadow mice. 



Cases have been recorded where loggerheads ate carrion. Mr. 

 William Lloyd, in an article entitled 'Birds of Tom Green and Concho 

 counties, Texas' (The Auk, Vol. IV, 1887, p. 295), states that in the 

 severe January of 1884 he found a loggerhead shrike so gorged from 

 feeding on a dead sheep tha,t it could not iiy. 



OTHER VERTEBRATES EATEN BY THE LOGGERHEAD. 



Lizards were found in G of the 9 stomachs collected south of the lat- 

 itude of Nashville, Tenn. One of the lizards was the so called chame- 

 leon {Anolis principcdis). Snakes, fish, and frogs are occasionally eaten. 

 On this subject Mr. H. G. Gedney writes: * * * "I have often seen 

 them (loggerheads) return to lizards and tree toads which they had 

 impaled * * *. i saw a loggerhead attack a snake of the genus Lepto- 

 phis, nearly two feet long, and after a sharp contest succeed in dis- 

 patching it." It is not at all uncommon for loggerliead shrikes to kill 

 snakes. In The Osprey for April, 1897, is a picture of an impaled 

 garter snake [J^utcenia sirtalis) beside a loggerhead's nest, ^nd several 

 observers have told me that they attack snakes and impale their 

 bodies. Prof. W. G. Johnson, of the Maryland Agricultural College, 



» William Lloyd. s Florida Dispatch. " W. H. Collins. 



« William Palmer. •• Robert Ridgway. 



