. Bird lore . nient than the forks. The Shrike finally made regular visitsto our meat-market and did not mindthe appearance of an umbrella blind,nor even the rattle of a motion-picturecamera. Thanks to his fearlessness, wenow have a permanent record in motion-pictures of just how the Shrike eats, aswell as a partial record of just how hecatches a Sparrow, by making a head-long dash at it, relying upon the surpriseof his onrush to put the victim at a disadvantage. If he misses his prey in thefirst rush, he seems to realize that he has lost his best chance and does not carrythe pursuit further.
. Bird lore . nient than the forks. The Shrike finally made regular visitsto our meat-market and did not mindthe appearance of an umbrella blind,nor even the rattle of a motion-picturecamera. Thanks to his fearlessness, wenow have a permanent record in motion-pictures of just how the Shrike eats, aswell as a partial record of just how hecatches a Sparrow, by making a head-long dash at it, relying upon the surpriseof his onrush to put the victim at a disadvantage. If he misses his prey in thefirst rush, he seems to realize that he has lost his best chance and does not carrythe pursuit further. On one occasion he made a dash at some Sparrows in awire trap and, when unsuccessful, he did not persist and try to get at themthrough the bars, as a Sparrow Hawk would have done, but immediately flewback to his perch and waited for the excitement to die down. It was interesting to see the reactions of the different birds to his House Sparrows all rushed for the hedge and hopped about in its thick. THE SHRIKE IN THE ACT OF EATINGThere was not room on the post to perchbeside the food, and in order to tear off bits, ithad to hover like a Hummingbird or perchlike a Woodpecker, as here shown. 404 Bird - Lore j> branches, chippering excitedly, but the native birds, at the first alarm, frozeimmovable wherever they happened to be. A Song Sparrow on an open feeding-shelf, a Junco on a bare branch, and several Juncos on the open snow remainedmotionless for twenty minutes and as long as the Shrike was quiet. As soonas he moved or darted at a bird, they all made for the hedge, except the onepursued, which made off through the open. The Chickadees, among the nativebirds, were an exception. They could not remain quiet for more than a fewminutes without getting nervous, when they would fly to the tree over theShrikes head and scold him. That the freezing method had its advantages was evidenced by the factthat all of the birds captured by the Shrike, in so far as any traces we
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectorn
