Loggerhead Shrike

I anchored the sloop one evening opposite a small savannah on Edisto Island, South Carolina. A gray bird, which I at first thot a Mockingbird, appeared from the brush and with a long upward sweep lit on the topmast. In its wake swept a larger and darker form which struck, and both tumbled to the deck. — A Sharpshin Hawk with a LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE in his talons! A drama wherein the arch villain had acquired merit. The Shrike was dead: the Hawk escaped. In the west, beauty and peace of evening. . . . On deck, war and death.

Judd has proved by experiments with caged Shrikes that the primary object of impalation is to enable them to tear edible pieces from victims. Their feet were not strong enuf to hold the bodies. Insects were not hung unless appetite was surfeited. Mice were killed by a blow which severed the backbone at base of brain and the body eaten in one and one-half hours!

Indigestible parts were disgorged in pellets; bones in the center. feathers outside.