BIRDS OF NEW YORK 



359 



conspicuously tipped with white; tips of secondaries white; forehead, tips 

 of scapulars and the upper tail coverts whitish; a broad black stripe from 

 the nostril down the side of the head; under parts grayish white narrowly 

 barred with blackish. Female: Similar but slightly smaller and the colors 

 dingier. Young: Like the female, more or less washed with brown, having 

 a tinge of buffy below. 



Length 10.1-10.5 inches; extent 14-15; wing 4.55-5; tail 4; bill .7; 

 tarsus .9. 



Distribution. The North- 

 ern shrike breeds from north- 

 western Alaska and northern 

 Ungava southward to south- 

 ern Saskatchewan and south- 

 ern Quebec ; winters southward 

 as far as central California, 

 Texas and Virginia. In New 

 York it is purely a winter 

 visitant, appearing from the 

 north from the 20th of October 

 to the 15th of November, and 

 disappearing in the spring 

 from the 1 8th to the 30th of 

 March, occasionally lingering 

 as late as the 12th of April. 

 It is not a common species 

 in any portion of the State, 

 but is distributed rather uni- 



Mouse impaled on thorn by Northern shrike fomily throughout the Coun- 



try districts and often enters the limits of towns and cities to feed on the 

 English sparrows which are easier prey than it can find in the wildernesses. 

 I have not noticed the Butcher bird as common as it formerly was in western 

 New York, during the last 15 years. Sometimes a whole winter passes 

 without my seeing a single specimen while traveling about the country, 

 but if I spend a day traveling over the broad uplands and across 



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