138 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



wings and tail black and white; under parts grayish-white. Im. 

 in summer. — Top of head and back brownish-gray; breast washed 

 with brownish; black lines hardly extending beyond the eye, and 

 not meeting over the bill. 



Nest, in a thick bush or tree, often a hawthorn bush. Eggs, 

 whitish, thickly marked with brown. 



The Loggerhead Shrike is a not uncommon summer resi- 

 dent of the Lake Champlain Valley. It breeds rarely in the 



rest of northern New England, 

 and is a very rare migrant in 

 southern New England and 

 the Hudson Valley. Its habit 

 of perching on the tips of trees 

 or bushes, and its contrasting 



colors, gray, black, and white, 

 Fig. 29. Loggerhead Shrike n ., , -, 



make it easy to observe and 



recognize. It feeds on grasshoppers, frogs, and mice, and, to 



a certain extent, on small birds, and impales its prey on 



thorns. Its song is described as low and musical, and its 



call-notes as harsh and unmusical. The ordinary shrike in 



New England between October and April is the Northern 



Shrike. The Loggerhead is over an inch smaller than its 



relative, and the black marks in front of the eyes meet 



across the forehead. 



Northern Shrike. Lanius borealis 



10.32 



-4c?. — Upper parts ash-gray, becoming whitish on the forehead, 

 over the eye, and on the rump; a blackish stripe back of the eye, 

 extending to the base of the bill, but not over it; wings and tail 

 black and white; under parts grayish-white, crossed with dark 

 wavy lines which show only at close range. Im. — Upper parts 

 grayish-brown; wings and tail duller; under parts much more 

 distinctly covered with wavy lines of dark gray. 



The Northern Shrike is a winter visitant in New York 

 and New England ; rare in some years, not uncommon in 



