ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS. 
525 
Table slioieing the kinds and number of animals killed or eaten by the White- 
rumped Shrike. 
Number and Name of Speci¬ 
mens Examined. 
Of fifteen White-rump- 
ed Shrikes examined 
or observed . 
4 
o 
9 
CD 
a 
5 
5 
0 
Q 
O 
o 
3 
u 
o 
2 
0) 
2 
s 
2 
K 
lo 
4 
Classification 
OF Food. 
12 
Lepidoptera.. 
11 
Diptera . 
18 
Beetles. 
22 
Grasshoppers. 
2 
Crickets. 
G 
May-fiies. 
4 
Snails. 
3 
Birds. 
2 
Mice . 
75 
Adult forms . 
6 
Lai’vae. 
Ratios Represented by Lines. 
75. Lanius BOREALIS, ViEiLL. BUTCHER BIRD; NORTHERN SHRIKK. 
Group HI. Class b. 
This bird is a regular winter visitor to Wisconsin, but not in large numbers. 
Early in October it reaches the pine barrens in the northern part of the state, 
and shortly after makes its appearance further south. During the winter they 
often visit corn-fields for mice, where they will hover over a wagon to seize the 
first mouse that runs out upon the snow from the shocks that are being removed. 
They are quarrelsome among themselves, decidedly rapacious, and the dreaded 
foes of smaller birds. Sagacious and wily, they imitate the notes of other birds 
to decoy them within reach, or remain concealed until their victims approach, 
when they pounce upon them unawares. Their audacity is so great that they 
have been known to enter dwellings to rob the canary cage of its inmates. They 
dart hawk-like upon their prey, with almost certain aim, and pursue it with 
rapidity and pertinacity through the thickets in which it seeks shelter. Mr. 
Tripp has witnessed this bird kill and bear off in its bill a Snowbird. Dr. Brewer 
speaks of a pair that visited the Boston Common, killing one or more English 
Sparrows on several successive days. Mr. Samuels has seen it fiy into a flock of 
Tree Sparrows and kill three before they had dispersed. And August Fowler 
says they are the deadliest enemy of the Chickadee. 
These observations, it should be observed, were made during the winter season, 
when a scanty supply of food doubtless makes the bird much more desperate 
than it is in its summer liome, surrounded by an abundance of insects upon wliich 
it also feeds. There can be but little doubt, however, that even there the birds 
which it destroys would be more effective in destroying insects, if permitted to 
live, than it can be. 
Food: Mice and beetles. Principally grasshoppers, some other insects and 
spiders, occasionally birds (Wilson). Mice, small birds and insects (Cooper). 
Small birds, mice, insects and their larvae (Samuels). Snowbird (Mr. Trippe). 
English Sparrow (Brewer). Black-capped Chickadee (August Fowler). Field- 
mice and small birds (Dr. Hoy). 
