44 Bird Day Book 



In Dr. Judd's Bulletin No. 9, Biographical Survey, Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, the list of groups of insects destroyed by the 

 Loggerhead Shrike fills a page, and includes such pests as cater- 

 pillars, cut-worms, canker-worms, grasshoppers, crickets and 

 weevils. 



But mark the winter and early spring record. Thirteen species 

 of small birds are numbered among the Loggerhead's victims, of 

 which five are sparrows, and the others are the ground-dove, chim- 

 ney-swift, Bell's vireo and snow-bunting. The Butcher-Bird is 

 known to kill twenty-eight species of birds, some of them valuable 

 insect-destroyers, and none of them to be spared without loss except 

 the English sparrow. On the other hand, this bird is a great 

 destroyer of wild mice, which in cold weather formed one-fourth 

 of its entire food. The Loggerhead also feeds freely upon lizards, 

 snakes, frogs and fish, when they are obtainable. The Butcher- 

 Bird is a deadly enemy of the English sparrow, and kills and 

 eats them so industriously that in Boston certain city officials once 

 felt called upon to order the Shrikes to be shot. 



The great Northern Shrike is able to sing, but seldom does 

 so; and many of his friends think he sings not at all. In the sum- 

 mer it ranges all the way to Cook Inlet, Alaska, and in winter it 

 migrates as far south as Virginia. In the Southern states it 

 meets the Loggerhead Shrike, and the two species so strongly 

 resemble each other they are like two feathered Dromios. 



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