630 Field Museum of Natural History — Zoology, Vol. IX. 



292a. Lanius ludovicianus migrans Palmer. 

 Migrant Shrike. 



Distr.: Eastern United States, north of Soutli Carolina, Alabama, 

 and Mississippi, and from Arkansas, Iowa, and Minnesota eastward 

 to the coast. 



Special characters: Very similar to the Loggerhead Shrike, but 

 supposed to differ in having the upper parts more bluish gray ; under 

 parts washed with slaty gray; bill, more slender; and tail, shorter 

 than the wing (carpus to tip). 



A common summer resident in Illinois and Wisconsin. Inter- 

 mediates occur between ludovicianus and migrans which might be 

 referred to either form. The majority arrive in northern Illinois 

 late in March or early in April (earliest Chicago record, March 8). 



Kumlien and Hollister state that it is "Not as common north of 

 the central part of the state as south of it, except toward the north- 

 west, where it appears to be found more or less to the extreme north 

 portion." (Birds of Wisconsin, 1903, p. 107.) 



Habits, nest, and eggs are similar to those of the Loggerhead 

 Shrike. 



The Field Museum collection contains the following sets of eggs 

 from northern Illinois: 4 eggs, Chicago, April 26; 6 eggs, Joliet, 

 May 3 ; 5 eggs, Joliet, May 11 ; 2 eggs, Joliet, May 11 ; 6 eggs, Joliet, 

 May 26; also a set of eggs taken at Grinnell, Iowa, June 12. 



