Cambridge, Mass.
1910.
Jan'y 1 [January 1, 1910]
  About eight o'clock this morning I was looking
out over our garden through one of the windows at
the rear of the house when an English Sparrow
came in sight, closely pursued by a Northern Shrike.
The two birds were scarce a yard apart when
they reached the lilacs which were bent and
broken down beneath heavy masses of snow that fell
nearly a week ago. Under them the hunted Sparrow
at once sought and found safe refuge. For although
the Shrike made repeated attempts to discover or to
dislodge his prey, hovering over the thicket on rapidly
vibrating wings - precisely as a Kingfisher poises over water -
and occasionally even plunging down [?], apparently
quite at random, through the branches, sending up
jets of snow dust that glinted in the sunlight, he
had finally to abandon all hope of securing this particular
Sparrow and to go elsewhere, probably in search of another.