526 
ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS. 
76. Lanius ludovicianus excubiterotdes (Sw.), Coues. WHITE-RUMPED 
SHRIKE. Group HI. Class b. 
This bird is a common summer resident, but happily not very abundant. It 
is peculiarly a bird of open countries and frequents fields, pastures and meadows 
of both high and low lands. It possesses many of the traits of the last species, 
but is a smaller and weaker bird. Dr. Cooper has seen it kill a Sparrow, but he 
thinks that the occurrence is exceptional; and Mr. Ridgway found a Chimney 
S .vallow which it had impaled on a thorn. He also saw one of these birds dash 
upon a canary bird cage, and when the frightened inmate thrust its head between 
the wires, the Shrike seized and tore it off with its powerful beak. I have seen 
four Robins together attempting to drive one of these birds from the vicinity of 
a nest of half-grown young; and the Shrike only shifted its position upon the 
limbs of the tree to face its enemies, until my gun brought it to the ground. A 
nest which was built in an apple tree, but recently abandoned, I found literally 
lined with the wing-covers and legs of three species of tiger-beetles. 
Since writing the above there has come to my knowledge positive evidence of 
this species having killed three other birds. One of them was a canary bird 
which belonged to Mr. Thomas Martin, of River Falls. The bird was hung in 
its cage outside the door, where it was discovered by this Shrike and its head 
torn from its body. This spring, 1882, a pair of these Shrikes built their nest 
in an evergreen standing in the cemetery at River Falls. Mr. Harry Smith, 
while passing one morning, observed a Shrike flying toward the graveyard with 
a small bird in its mouth. He followed the Shrike and observed him fix his 
bird in the crotch of a limb and proceed to pick off the feathers. Very soon 
the Shrike tore off the head of its pi'ey and ate it, after which another piece was 
removed, and this was carried to the nest and disposed of there. The remainder 
of the bird Mr. Smith carried away. Two days after this event I visited the 
scene described, in company with Mr. Smith, and we found in the tree where 
the bird had been torn in pieces, two short, sharp, stiff, dead limbs standing in 
two forks of other limbs which were on opposite sides of the same small burr 
oak. Each of these sharp stubs had been used as a spit, for both were coated 
with a thick layer of blood, to which were adhering small olive-green feathers, 
probably those of some Warbler. From this evidence and that of Mr. Smith, it 
is certain that this pair had killed at least two birds, and, judging from the 
thickness of the layer of blood, I suspect that more than two had been 
spitted upon them. On another tree in the vicinity of this Shrike’s nest, we 
found another short, dead limb similarly situated which had been used in the 
same manner. It was thickly coated with blood, and to it were adhering the 
hairs of some mouse. We whittled these limbs and returned some days after¬ 
ward to examine them, but they had not been soiled. Two birds and one mouse 
at least must have been desti’oyed by this pair of Shrikes while breeding in the 
place named. The nest had four young birds in it one week old at the time of 
our visit. 
From what is here recorded it is evident that, wherever else this Shrike may 
be allowed to breed, it should not be tolerated about dwellings and orchards 
where small birds are so serviceable. 
Food: Of fifteen specimens examined or observed, one had eaten seven moths; 
three, five caterpillars; two, eleven diptera, among them five crane-flies; nine, 
eighteen beetles, among them three ground-beetles, three carrion-beetles and two 
leaf-chafers; five, twenty-two grasshoppers; two, two crickets; three, six May¬ 
flies; two, four snails. Two had killed three birds — one, a Canary-bird, and 
