114 BULLETIN 19 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



California : 150 records, February 23 to July 15 ; 20 records, March 

 8 to 29 ; 84 records, June 1 to 30. 

 Mexico : 24 records, April 10 to June 3 ; 15 records, May 11 to 28. 



Family LANIIDAE : Shrikes 



LANIUS BOREALIS BOREALIS Vieillot 



NORTHERN SHRIKE 



HABITS 



The great northern shrike, or butcherbird, is known to most of us 

 only as a rather uncommon winter visitor throughout the northern 

 half of the United States, where we see it as a solitary sentinel perched 

 on the top of a tree, looking for some luckless small bird, or hovering 

 over an open field, ready to pounce on the timid little mouse as it 

 threads his winter runway. Either bird or mouse is to be added to his 

 larder, impaled on a nearby thorn or crotch, as the butcher hangs his 

 meat; hence the appropriate name of butcherbird (pi. 15). 



Few of us have been favored to see it in its summer home, for it 

 breeds as far north as the spruce forests extend and comes south only 

 when scarcity of food compels it to do so. We found it fairly common 

 all along the coast of Labrador, from Hopedale to Nain and Okkak, 

 wherever there was any considerable growth of fair-sized spruces. 

 According to Lucien M. Turner (MS.), it was not very common at 

 Fort Chimo, Ungava. Westward from Hudson Bay it begins to 

 intergrade with the northwestern subspecies {invictus). 



Nesting. — There are three sets of eggs of the northern shrike in my 

 collection, all taken by the Kev. W. W. Perrett at Hopedale, Labrador. 

 They were all placed in spruce trees, about 12 feet from the ground, 

 nicely hidden by the branches, and all were very bulky affairs. The 

 first nest was discovered by seeing the male bird carrying food to the 

 female while she was sitting on the nest ; the nest contained only two 

 eggs, on June 7, 1915, but the data slip says "incubation just begun"; 

 the nest was made mainly of twigs, grass, feathers, rags, and deer hair. 



This same pair of birds built another nest in the same patch of woods, 

 about 150 yards from the first nest, from which he took a set of four 

 fresh eggs on June 17, 1915 ; these birds had built their new nest in 

 seven days; as there were no eggs in it on the 13th, the bird must have 

 laid an &gg each day. The third set of six fresh eggs was taken on 

 June 3, 1918. The three nests were all made of similar materials. 



There is another set of six eggs of this shrike in the Carnegie 

 Museum, taken by Mr. Perrett in the same locality on June 17, 1918, 

 for which W. E. Clyde Todd has sent me the data. The nest was con- 

 structed of similar materials and was located 8 feet from the ground in 

 a spruce tree. This was evidently the second set fi'om the same pair 



