Your shy tribute render!
Tie round your wet faces your soft hoods of blue;
And carry your sweetness,
Your dainty completeness,
To some tired hand that is longing for you.
—May Riley Smith.
THE GREAT NORTHERN SHRIKE.
(Lanius borealis.)
Of the great family Laniidae, the shrikes, of the order Passeres, we have in America only two species, the Great Northern Shrike, Lanius borealis, and the loggerhead shrike, which has been dealt with in a previous article. The name of the Great Northern Shrike is much more than a mouthful, and is all out of proportion to the size and importance of the bird, though when I intimate it lacks in importance I by no means wish to say that it lacks in interest.
There are two hundred species of shrikes altogether, nearly all of them being confined to the Old World. When one comes to know fully the characteristics of the creatures he feels that the birds would not have been out of place if they had been classed in the order Raptores, because they possess the distinguishing traits of the bird of prey. The shrikes, however, do not have talons, and they are singers of no mean order, facts which perhaps disqualify them for association with their larger rapacious brethren.
The Great Northern Shrike, more commonly perhaps called Butcher Bird, comes from northern British-American territory to the latitude of Chicago in the fall and stays through the winter, when it leaves for the vicinity of Fort Anderson in the crown territories, to build its nest. This is placed in a low tree or bush and is composed of twigs and grasses. The eggs number four or five. During the winter the shrike’s food consists almost entirely of small birds, with an occasional mouse to add variety. In the summer its diet is made up chiefly of the larger insects, though at times a small snake is caught and eaten with apparent relish.