372 



SYSTEMA TIC SYXOPSIS. — PASSERES— OSCINES. 



markings. Extreme examples of exciibitorides look very different from hidoncianus proper, 

 but the two are observed to melt iut(j each other when many specimens are compared, so that 

 no specific character can be assigned. Middle and Western N. Am. and Mexico ; N. to the 



Fig. l'SS. — Loggerhead Shrike. 



Saskatchewan, E. to Ohio, New York, Canada, and even New England. It is an arbitrary 

 distinction which assigns this variety a range restricted to Western N. Am. The nest and 

 eggs are indistinguishable from those of ludovicianus proper ; both resemble those of L. horeaUs, 

 but the eggs average smaller — about 0.97 X 0.72. 



L,. 1. gam'beli. (To Wm. Gambel.) California Shrike. The Pacific coast form, doubt- 

 fully attempted to be distinguished by its sordid coloration. Ridgw., Man. 1887, p. 467; 

 CouES, Key, 4th ed. 1890, pr899; A. 0. U. List, 2d ed. 1895, p. 262, No. 622 6. 

 L. 1. aiitho'nyi. (To A. W. Anthony.) Island Shrike. An insular form, said to be 

 darker than gamheli, even darker than ludovicianus proper, and quite small. Santa Barbara 

 Islands. L. I. gamheli Anthony, Pub. No. 1, Pasadena Acad. Sci. Aug. 1897, p. 19. 

 L. I. anthomji Mearns, Auk, July, 1898, p. 261; A. 0. U. Suppl. List, Auk, Jan. 1899, 

 p. 122. 



Note. — Yet anotlier despairing aspirant for recognition is L. I. migran.i of W. Palmer, Auk, July, 1S98, pp. 244- 

 25S. This consists of 104 specimens intermediate between ludovicianus proper and excubitorides, or not exactly refer- 

 able to either. When the A. 0. U. Committee of 1800 readied tliis case, it was "deferred for lack of material" I I 

 should say that it simply proves the position I have taken in tlie Key since 1872, when I iirst reduced eicubitnrides to a 

 subspecies of ludoHcianus; for these 104 intermediates attest that intergradation between the two forms which is the 

 test of any subspecies. Mr. Palmer's ir>-page painstaking discussion of 104 specimens adds nothing to what he might 

 have learned in a few lines, if he had looked at the Key, 2d^th eds., 1884-90, p. 338. 



