Yes, Scott, I once saw a Northern Shrike carrying a mouse with its feet.
It amazed me as much as it did you, as I had always thought this wasn't
done.

But it stimulated me to see what A. C. Bent had to say about the subject,
and I found, as I usually do, that some aspect of bird behavior that I
considered amazing, or counterintuitive, or completely undescribed, was
well described by the "old guys" in Bent's life histories. I don't recall
the details, but prey-carrying by both bill and feet was well-known in the
Northern. I didn't look up the Loggerhead, although that would be of
interest too.

There is so much information about our bird species in that set of books
that it's a shame that most birders don't have them. Not only will it be a
long time before the Birds of North America series includes all the
species, but this series is so different from the Bent's life histories
series in being much drier and more technical, and totally without the
anecdotal/human interest that occurs on page after page of Bent. Not to
mention that the cost of $2900 for the whole BNA series is prohibitive to
just about all of us. I don't know if Bent's life histories are still
available as Dover reprints or not.

Several notes I have been stimulated to write about bird behavior died
aborning as soon as I looked in Bent to find that the phenomenon was well
described--only lacking in all recent books about birds! All birders and
ornithologists should not only own these books but *read* them.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416