Notes from Field and Study
A Blue Jay Tragedy
The Blue Jay and limb, with a portion of the nest, from which the accompanying photograph was made were found by Mr. H. W. McConoghy, near Lehman, Pa. In building its nest the Jay had procured a strong horse-hair, which was used to A BLUE JAY TRAGEDY fasten the nest in a forked oak-limb. In passing the hair over and around the limb the bird made a hair loop, about ten inches long, in which its head became entangled and death by strangulation re- sulted. — H. M. Beck, IVilkesbarre, J^a.
Feeding a Shrike
One March morning a Northern Shrike, in the seclusion of a store doorway on the principal business street of Franklin Falls, N. H., was so engrossed in choking an English Sparrow that he was caught in the hands of a passing pedestrian. (I After an imprisonment of five or six hours, the bird came into our possession and was allowed his liberty in a small room. When a piece of raw beefsteak was given him his mode of accepting and using it proved of much interest. There was not a trace of fear in any of his movements during our whole interview. When we approached him and took hold of the meat in his beak, he would tug at it vigorously as if to pull it from our grasp. We did not at first divine his needs, as he hopped about the room seem- ingly in search of something that could not be found The man present had on high storm overshoes, while another pair happened to be on the floor. The Shrike appeared to take a particular fancy to these articles of wear and examined first a shoe on the man's foot, then one on the floor. In a short time his strange actions began to have meaning to us, for it became evi- dent that he desired to impale the meat on the buckle of the shoe, but the tongue of the buckle was not sharp enough to hold the steak that was repeatedly drag- ged across it. Observing this, a steel kitchen fork was procured and held out before the Shrike, and, without a mo- ment's hesitation, he hopped upon the hand that held it, jerked the meat over the tines, and began to eat. Quick, for- ward thrusts of his partly spread wings added force to the work done by his powerful beak, as he tore off mouthful after mouthful of the meat. As an ex- periment, we removed the meat from the tines several times and held the fork some inches away. Each time the Shrike acted in the same manner. He took the meat in his beak, looked about until he saw his substitute for a thornbush, then he hopped to it, worked the meat in position and proceeded with his dinner. Here was an opportunity for a photog- rapher of bird-life, and we determined to keep him a day or two for sittings. Con- tinuing to eat, perched on the hand that
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