White-rumped Shrike 429 



The following localities are recorded : Boulder co., rather tincommon 

 (Henderson), Idaho Springs (Trippe), Denver (Smith), EI Paso co. 

 (Aiken), Las Animas co., November (Gary), Mesa Co., not common 

 (Rockwell), Crested Butte (Warren), San Juan co. (Drew), La Plata co. 

 (Morrison). 



Habits. — The Northern Shrike has a deserved repu- 

 tation for cruelty and rapacity ; it is a solitary bird and 

 frequents open countrj^ and cultivated land, where it 

 takes up a conspicuous perch and watches for an 

 opportunity of securing its prey. In the autumn this 

 consists largely of grasshoppers, beetles and other fairly 

 large insects, but later on when these have disappeared 

 it pounces on mice and small birds, especially the Juncos 

 and Horned Larks, and Sparrows about the toAvns. 

 It flies direct from its perch, strikes and carries back 

 its victim in its claws to its perch again to devour at 

 leisure. It does not appear to impale its victims on 

 the thorns and barbed wire to any extent as other Shrikes 

 do. Its ordinary note is harsh, but it has a SM^eet and 

 pleasant song according to Smith, especially agreeable 

 in winter, when the woods are bare and there is little 

 else to hear. 



White-rumped Shrike. 

 Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 622a— Colorado Records— Baird 64, p. 445 ; 

 Allen 72, p. 149 ; Aiken 72, p. 198 ; Henshaw 75, p. 233 ; Drew 81, 

 p. 89 ; 85, p. 15 ; Allen & Brewster 83, p. 160 ; Beckham 87, p. 123 ; 

 Morrison 88, p. 73 ; Smith 88, p. 163 ; S. "Bob White " 94, p. 138 ; Cooke 

 97, pp. 18, 112, 217 ; Keyser 02, p. 98 ; Dille 03, p. 74 ; Henderson 

 03, p. 108 ; 09, p. 239 ; Warren 06, p. 23 ; 08, p. 24 ; Gihnan 07, p. 194 ; 

 Markman 07, p. 158 ; Rockwell 08, p. 175. 



Description. — Adult Male — General colour above blueish-slaty-grey, 

 becomin .; broadly white on the scapulars and rump, but hardly showing 

 any white on the frontal and superciliary region ; a broad black patch 

 from the base of the bill through the eye to the ear-coverts, this extends 

 to the nasal tufts and the base of the culmen ; wings and tail black, 

 the former with a white band across the base of the primaries ; the tips of 



