420 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



very fond of the little changeable green lizard, which it pursues with great 

 skill and activity, but not always with success. 



It is said also to breed twice in a season. Dr. Bachman describes their 

 eggs as white, and Mv. Audubon sjwaks of them as greenish-white. Neither 

 make any reference to their spots. 



All tlie nests that I have ever seen of this species, in the simplicity of 

 their structure and in their lack of elaboration, are iu remarkable contrast 

 with the nests of both the horcalis and the cjxubif oroides. They are flat, 

 shallow structures, witli a height of about two inches and a diameter of five. 

 They are made externally of long soft strips of the inner bark of the bass- 

 wood, strengthened on the sides with a few dry twigs, stems, and roots. 

 Within, it is lined with fine grasses and stems of lierbaceous ])lants. 



The eggs, often six in number, are iu length from 1.02 to 1.08 inches, and 

 from .72 to .78 of an inch in breadth ; their ground-color is a yellowish or 

 clayey-white, blotched and marbled with dashes, more or less confluent, of 

 obscure purple, light brown, and a jnirplisii-gray. The spots are usually 

 larger and more scattered than in tlie eggs of C. horealis, and the ground- 

 color is a yellowish and not a bluish wliite, as iu the eggs of C. cxcuhitoruidcs. 



CoUurio ludovicianus, var. robustus, Baikd. 



WHITE-WINGED SHRIKE. 



t? L<iiu,i.^dr,in,is, .S\v. F. 15. A. U, 1831, 122. — NuTTALi., Mail. I, 1840, 287. — Cassin, 

 Pr. A. N. Sc. 1857, 213. — Baikd, Birds N. Am. 1858, 327. CoUiirio elegans, Baiud, 

 Birds N. Am. 1858, 328. Collurio e/eyans, Baikd, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 444. — Cooper, 

 Orn. C'al. I, 1870, 140. (According to Duessf.ii & Shaupe, P. Z. S. 1870, 595, 

 who have examined tlie type, the L. clcgans of Swainson is the same as L. lahlora, 

 Sykes, of Siberia.) 



Had. California? 



Tlu! description already given is taken from a specimen in the collection of 

 the Piiiladelphia Academy, labelled as having been collected in California by 

 Dr. Gambel, and is very decidedly different from any of the recognized North 

 American species. Of nearly the size of C. ejriibitoimdcs and ludovicianus, 

 .it has a bill even more powerful than that of C. horealis. In its unwaved 

 under parts and uniform color of the entire upper surface, except scapulars, 

 it differs from horralis and cridnforoidrs, and resembles ludovicianus. In the 

 extension of white over the inner webs of the secondaries, it closely resem- 

 bles O. cxculitor. The great restriction of white at the base of the tail — 

 the four central feathers being entirely black, and the bases of the others 

 grayish-ashy — is quite peculiar to the species. 



Tlie specimen in the Philadelphia Academy we originally referred to the 

 L. clcgans of Swainson, alleged to have come from the fur countries, as al- 

 though some appreciable differences presented themselves, especially in the 



