MIGRANT SHRIKE 151 



the west and that the northward migi'ation in spring is mainly west of 

 the Alleghenies and then eastward into New Enghmd. I have never 

 seen it in southeastern Massachusetts in spring and only rarelj^- in 

 fall ; but Wendell Taber tells me that he has seen it in eastern Massa- 

 chusetts on at least four occasions during March, once quite near my 

 home and tAvice even on Cape Cod. In fall, however, it apparently 

 moves southward, or southeastward, toward the coast and then fol- 

 lows a coastwise route, east of the Alleghenies, to its winter haunts. 

 From the more western portions of its summer range the fall migra- 

 tion seems to move in a more southern, or southwestern, direction to 

 winter haunts as far vrest as Louisiana and Texas. 



Nesting. — The nesting habits of the migrant shrike do not differ 

 matei'ially from those of the species elsewhere, except that in some 

 localities it seems to select more often some isolated tree along a high- 

 way and often at a considerable height in an exi'tosed situation. In 

 northern New England and in eastern Canada, nests have been found 

 in conifers, firs, spruces, and pines. 



Henry Mousley (1918) mentions a nest found near Hatley, Quebec, 

 in a solitary, tall fir tree by the side of a road and not far from his 

 house. The lower branches of the tree had been cut off, and the nest 

 was placed 34 feet from the ground in a dense portion of the tree, so 

 tliat it could not be seen from the ground. "The foundation of the 

 nest consisted of fir twigs, rootlets, string and that favorite material 

 of most birds here, the stalks and flower heads of the pearly ever- 

 lasting. The lining was formed of wool, plant down, and a good 

 supply of feathers, and the dimensions were as follows, viz. : outside 

 diameter 6, inside 2% inches; outside depth 41^5 inside 214 inches." 

 He located the second nest of this pair 8 feet up in an apple tree, only 

 85 yards distant, and suggests that the shrikes may have selected the 

 fir tree because there was no foliage for concealment on the deciduous 

 trees and thickets when the first nest was built. However that may be, 

 there are a number of other records of nests in conifers, up to 20 feet 

 in spruces and firs and down to as low as 4 or 5 feet in stunted spruces. 

 Owen Durf ee mentions in his field notes a nest 13 feet from the ground, 

 in plain sight, in an elm tree and another in a pine, both by a roadside 

 near Lancaster, N. H. ; and Frederic H. Kennard records in his notes 

 for the same locality a nest 18 feet up in a spruce tree growing by the 

 road in front of a farmhouse. 



It must not be inferred from the above records that the migrant 

 shrike does not nest in other situations in this general region, for it 

 has often been found nesting here in apple trees in orchards, in other 

 low trees, and in such thorny bushes and thickets as it uses elsewhere. 



A. Dawes Du Dois has sent me his data for seven nests in Illinois. 

 Four of these were in osage-orange hedoes or bushes : one was in an 



