The Red-eyed Vireo

Length about six inches.

Upper parts olive-green, with a white line over the eye, and gray cap
with a black border.

Under parts white, shaded with greenish on the sides.

A Summer Citizen of North America east of the Pacific States, and a
hard-working member of the guild of Tree Trappers.

THE GREAT NORTHERN SHRIKE

(Or BUTCHER BIRD)

"I thought you would tell about my beautiful red bird next," interrupted
Dodo. "Why do we want to hear about this bird if he lives so far north?"

"Your bird will come later on, little girl. Nat and Rap must each have
their turn before it comes to you again; besides, this Shrike is a sort
of cousin to the Vireos by right of his hooked beak, and you know I am
trying to place our birds somewhat in their regular family order."

Poor Dodo felt ashamed to have seemed selfish and interrupted
unnecessarily.

"Some winter or early spring day, when the woods are bare and birds are
very scarce, you will look into a small tree and wonder what that gray
and black bird, who is sitting there so motionless, can be. He is too
small for a Hawk, though there is something hawk-like about his head. He
is altogether too large for a Chickadee; not the right shape for a
Woodpecker; and after thus thinking over the most familiar winter birds,
you will find that you only know what he is _not_.

[Illustration: Northern Shrike.]

"Suddenly he spreads his wings and swoops down, seizing something on or
near the ground--a mouse perhaps, or a small bird--let us hope one of
the detestable English Sparrows. Or else you may see this same bird, in
the gray and black uniform, peep cautiously out of a bush and then skim
along close above the ground, to secure the field-mouse he has been
watching; for the guild of Wise Watchers catch their prey in both of
these ways, and most of them are cannibal birds."

"What is a cannibal bird?" asked Dodo. "I forget. I know that real
cannibals are people that eat other people. Do these birds eat people?"

"They eat birds and other small animals," said Rap. "Don't you
remember?"

"Why, of course I do," said Dodo. "But if Shrikes eat birds, aren't they
very bad Citizens?"

"I do not wonder that you think so, my lassie; and so they would be if
they ate birds only; but the Shrike earns his right to be thought a good
Citizen by devouring mice and many kinds of insects, like beetles, which
injure orchards and gardens. The comparatively few birds tha