The Audubon Societies 243 



however, soon teaches the marked ditTerences between these aerial birds. 

 Throughout North America, the famihar Barn Swallow is found breeding 

 quite generally, from northwestern Alaska and the Great Bear Lake region 

 to southern California, and west of 97° in southern Texas, also to northern 

 Arkansas and North Carolina down the Atlantic coast, and even in Mexico as 

 far as Jalisco and Tepic. It migrates along the Bahamas and West Indies, win- 

 tering from southern Mexico to Brazil, northern Argentina, and central Chile. 

 This Swallow wanders by accident to Greenland, the Bermudas, and the 

 Galapagos Islands. 



One of the smallest of the passerine families, the Waxwings, nevertheless, 

 have a wide distribution in the northern hemisphere. Noted for their beauty, 

 but possessed of small vocal ability, these charming birds wander about in 

 small flocks, feeding upon wild fruits and insects, and nesting late in the breed- 

 ing-season. The Cedar Waxwing is found in nearly all parts of North America, 

 its northern breeding limit extending from British Columbia to Cape Breton 

 Island, and its most southerly winter quarters from Cuba to Panama and 

 Mexico. It may be called resident throughout most of the United States, 

 except in the southern part. 



In the southwestern portion of the United States and in the Valley of 

 Mexico, there is found a small, crested, shining black bird called the Phaino- 

 pepla, which is closely related to the Waxwings. It is the only representative 

 of the "Silky Flycatchers" in our country. 



The Shrikes, or "Butcher-birds," are largely Old World birds, only two 

 of the two hundred or more species being found in America. Five subspecies 

 of the Loggerhead Shrike are known, but the larger Northern Shrike has only 

 one form, and this belongs to the northern part of our continent as its name 

 shows. During the breeding season, this Shrike is found from the southern 

 part of Quebec and Ontario, central Saskatchewan, and the base of the great 

 Alaskan peninsula northward. In winter, it goes only as far south as central 

 California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kentucky and Virginia. The North- 

 ern Shrike is carnivorous by habit, feeding chiefly on mice and killing young 

 birds, which it leaves impaled upon sharp twigs of trees. Insects form a part 

 of its diet, so that, like other Shrikes, it is known as a beneficial bird. 



There are some fifty species of Vireos, only twelve of which visit North 

 America. Beautiful in plumage, notable for their full, voluble songs and 

 shapely nests, as well as for their beneficial food habits, it is strange 

 that this family is not better known to the ordinary observer. The Red-eyed 

 Vireo, singing persistently as it feeds, is one of our commonest summer neigh- 

 bors. It has a very extensive range, breeding from British Columbia and 

 southern Mackenzie across the continent to Cape Breton Island, down through 

 the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains, even into Mexico. It win- 

 ters in South America and in migration has been known to stray to Nevada, 

 Greenland, and across the ocean to England. 



