420 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



very fond of the little changeable green lizard, which it pursues with great 

 skill and activity, but not always with success. 



It is said also to breed twice in a season. Dr. Bachman describes their 

 eggs as white, and ]\Ir. Audubon speaks of them as greeni.sh-white. Neither 

 make any reference to their spots. 



All the nests that I have ever seen of this species, in the simplicity of 

 their structure and in their lack of elaboration, are in remarkable contrast 

 with the nests of both the horealis and the cxcuhitoroidcs. They are flat, 

 shallow structures, with a height of about two inches and a diameter of five. 

 They are made externally of long soft strips of the inner bark of the bass- 

 wood, strengthened on the sides with a few dry twigs, stems, and roots. 

 Within, it is lined with fine grasses and stems of herbaceous plants. 



The eggs, often six in number, are in length from 1.02 to 1.08 inches, and 

 from .72 to .78 of an inch in breadth ; their ground-color is a yellowish or 

 clayey-white, blotched and marbled with dashes, more or less confluent, of 

 obscure purple, light brown, and a purplish-gray. The spots are usually 

 larger and more scattered than in the eggs of C. horealis, and the ground- 

 color is a yellowish and not a bluish white, as in the eggs of C. excuhitoroides. 



CoUurio ludovicianus, var. robustus, Baird. 



WHITE-WINGED SHRIKE. 



.?.? Lanhis elcgans, Sw. F. B. A. II, 1831, 122. — Xuttall, Man. I, 1840, 287. — Cassin, 

 Pr. A. N. Sc. 1857, 213. — Baikd, Birds N. Am. 1858, 327. Colhirio elegans, Baird, 

 Birds N. Am. 1858, 328. CoUurio elegans, Baird, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 444. —Cooper, 

 Om. Cal. I, 1870, 140. (According to Dresser & Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1870, 595, 

 who have examined the type, the L. elegans of Swainson is the same as L. lahtora, 

 Sykes, of Siberia.) 



Hab. California ? 



The description already given is taken from a specimen in the collection of 

 the Philadelphia Academy, labelled as having been collected in California by 

 Dr. Gambel, and is very decidedly different from any of the recognized North 

 American species. Of nearly the size of C. excuhitoroides and ludovicianus, 

 it has a bill even more powerful than that of C. horealis. In its unwaved 

 under parts and uniform color of the entire upper surface, except scapulars, 

 it differs from horealis and excubitoroides, and resembles ludovicianus. In the 

 extension of Mdiite over the inner webs of the secondaries, it closely resem- 

 bles C. excvMtor. The gi-eat restriction of white at the base of the tail — 

 the four central feathers being entirely black, and the bases of the others 

 grayish-ashy — is quite peculiar to the species. 



The specimen in the Philadelphia Academy we originally referred to the 

 L. elegans of Swainson, alleged to have come from the fur countries, as al- 

 though some appreciable difierences presented themselves, especially in the 



