Lanius ludoviplanus migrant . 
Bethel, Maine. 
1903 
June 8 
(7) 
very swiftly, but as a rule his motion after he had gone a few rods 
became slower and slower until he seemed to move no faster than a 
tuft of thistle down,drifting before a light wind*and with equal 
lightness and grace. I can think of no other bird which ever flies 
in just this way. After the few wing beats he held his wings wide¬ 
spread and quite motionless, his bill pointing downwards, his tail 
closed. He rarely approached his mate nearer than fifty yards, but 
once he went directly towards her and alighted within ten feet of 
her when she greeted him with a low, harsh, vibrating cry and a 
long-continued fluttering of her wings like that of a young bird. 
On another occasion I saw him fly directly off from a telegraph 
pole for a distance of about one hundred yards and then mount 
straight upwards to a height of forty or fifty feet apparently in 
pursuit of some flying insect which I thought he caught and in¬ 
stantly swallowed. During the upward flight he beat his wings 
vigorously but they were held nearly or quite immovable during the 
long, smooth glide by means of which he reached a fence post well 
out in the field. Soon after this he flew down to the ground and 
picked up what looked like a large beetle. Holding this in the 
tip of his bill he came nearly straight towards me and, to my 
great surprise, alighted by the side of a young Shrike which all 
the while must have been sitting within ten yards of me on a fence 
rail by the roadside. The young bird received the insect in its 
wide opened bill and instantly swallowed it ; at the same time 
7 ? 
