BIRDS OF NEW YORK 



363 



as breeding near Buffalo; in i860, Mcllwraith in his " Birds of Ontario," 

 page 346, reports that it was first seen at Hamilton in i860, and after 1866 

 was a regular breeder in southern Ontario; it was noted by Coues from 

 New England in 1868; by Purdy in 1873; and by Maynard in 1875; reported 

 by Brewer as breeding in Maine in 1877, and in Vermont the same year. 

 It is probable that the early records of Northern shrikes breeding in New 



Migrant shrike on nest 



Photo by James H. Miller 



England and in New York are attributable to this species, and it is barely 

 possible that the Migrant shrike was overlooked for many years on account 

 of its comparative rarity; but it seems certain if it was as common a bird 

 as it is at the present day in the interior of New York, it would have been 

 reported earlier than 1869. From that date onward, records of the breed- 

 ing of this species increase both in western, central and eastern New York, 



