Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1900.
December.
(15)
bird being as closely defined as if I had him in my hands.
About fifteen minutes had now been consumed since we had seen
the Shrike in the beginning.
  The bird now stripped off more feathers and then began
tearing off and swallowing bits of red, raw, warm flesh. He
had secured his bird strongly this time, for during all the
pulling and tugging that the poor Sparrow received it remained
firm on its peg. This dish of English meat seemed to agree
well with our Shrike for he attacked it with renewed zest.
and ere long the bloody head with the skin entirely off the
top of the skull fell to the ground beneath. For twenty min-
utes we watched the Shrike eating the bird.
  At intervals when he pulled off a bit of flesh\he flew off with it, exactly after the fashion of a
Chickadee when it breaks off a piece of suet. Twice I saw
the Shrike swallow the bit after alighting on a branch near
us, once on the big apple tree by the lilacs, and once on the
English Hawthorn but thirteen yards from us. What he did on
other occasions, for he flew off at least six times, and why
he acted so I do not know. The natural supposition would be
that he stored these bits of flesh, as we know the Chickadees
do with the suet, but it seems impossible that he should ever
again make use of such small morsels which were never larger
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