156 BULLETIN 19 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



eggs; the nest was 8 feet from the ground in a small blackjack oak in 

 open country ; it was built on top of an old mockingbird's nest and was 

 made mainly of weed stalks with the leaf and blossom buds on them, 

 mixed with grasses, straws, and fine twigs; it was lined with finer 

 material of the same kind and with a few feathers. Another set was 

 taken on May 1 from a nest near Hereford that was 4 feet from the 

 ground in a small hackberry by the roadside. An exceptionally high 

 nest was found on May 27 near Fairbank, in the San Pedro Valley ; 

 this was 15 feet above the ground, near the end of a branch of a large 

 willow. 



A set of seven eggs in my collection, taken by Fred M. Dille, in Weed 

 County, Colo., came from a nest "in the lower, tangled branches of a 

 scrub willow, 7 feet from the ground." 



Dr. Miller's (1930) two proposed races, sonoriensis and nevadensis, 

 both of which we have always included within the range of excubito- 

 rides^ seem to have somewhat different preferences as to nesting sites, 

 owing, of course, to the difference in environment. Of the former, the 

 southwestern desert race, he (1931) says: "Mesquite, screw bean, palo 

 verde, smoke-bush, and other desert trees and bushes of similar size 

 afford nesting sites for this race. At Palm Springs, California, I have 

 found several nests fairly well concealed in clumps of mistletoe in 

 mesquite trees ranging in height from seven to fifteen feet above 

 ground. Where broadleaf trees occur these shrikes may make use of 

 such shelter for nesting." Of the more northern race, he says : "Nesting 

 sites oinevadensis include willows, cottonwoods, atriplex, Joshua trees, 

 mesquites, Purshia^ Lepargyrea argent ea^ and Artemisia tridentata. 

 Nests may be placed as low as two feet in sagebushes. A nest taken at 

 Lancaster, Los Angeles County, California, was located about five feet 

 from the ground on a hanging limb of a Joshua tree." For the more 

 northern and eastern race, to which he restricts the name excuhitorides, 

 he says that "principal among the nest sites of this form are the cotton- 

 wood and willow trees along the water courses in the Great Plains 

 region." E. S. Cameron (1908) mentions a Montana nest "in the fork 

 of a box elder" and another "in a cedar." 



Dawson and Bowles (1909) say of the nesting of this shrike in 

 eastern Washington : "The nest is a bulky but usually well-built affair, 

 placed habitually in a sagebush, or a greasewood clump, with wild 

 clematis for third choice. The structure is designed for warmth and 

 comfort, so that, whenever possible, to the thickened walls of plant 

 fibers, cowhair, or sheep's w^ool, is added an inner lining of feathers, and 

 these not infrequently curl over the edge so as completely to conceal 

 the nest contents." 



Dr. Jean M. Linsdale (1938) records four Nevada nests in buffalo- 

 berry bushes, 21/2 to 4 feet above ground, one 3 feet up in a sagebush 



