422 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



26438 



as described ; the back darker, the rump and axillars more plumbeous, the 

 sides more bluish. There is little doubt that the examination of series from 

 the States along the Mississippi will show a still closer resemblance to typi- 

 cal C. ludovicianus, and that the gradation between the two extremes will be 

 found to be continuous and unbroken. It therefore seems reasonable to con- 

 sider them all as one species, varying with longitude and region according 

 to the usual law, — the more western the lighter, with longer tail. The only 

 alternative is to suppose that two species, originally distinct, have hybridized 

 along the line of junction of their respective provinces, as is certainly some- 

 times the case. The approximation in many respects of coloration of the 

 Shrikes of the Pacific coast to those of the South Atlantic States is not with- 

 out its importance in the discussion of the subject. However it may be, it 



is necessary to retain the name of excu- 

 hitoroides, as representing, wliether as 

 species or variety, a peculiar regional 

 form, which must be kept distinctly in 

 mind. The comparatively greater size 

 of the bill in the Cape St. Lucas speci- 

 mens is seen in other sj^ecies from this 

 locality (No. 26,438 of adjacent figure). 

 The intensity of the black front in 

 this species varies considerably, being 

 sometimes very distinct, and again entirely wanting. This may probably 

 be a character of the breeding-season, the dulness of black anterior to the eye 

 and the lighter color of the bill having a close relationship here, as in other 

 species, to maturity, sex, and season. 



■ Habits. This variety was first described from specimens obtained in the 

 territory of the Hudson's Bay Co. Eichardson states that it was not found 

 farther north than the fifty-fourth degree, and there only in the warm and 

 sandy plain of the Saskatchewan. Its manners, he says, are precisely similar 

 to those of the horealis, feeding chiefly on the grasshoppers, which were very 

 numerous on the plains. Mr. Drummond found its nest in the beginning of 

 June, in a bush of willows. It was built of the twigs of the Artemisia and 

 dry grass, and lined with feathers. The eggs were six in number, of a 

 pale yellowish-gray color, with many irregular and confluent spots of oil- 

 green, mixed with a few of smoke-gray. 



Mr. Eidgway met with it, in his Western explorations, in all localities, but 

 most frequently among the Artemisia and in the meadow-tracts of the river 

 valleys. It is also seen on all parts of the mountains, among the cedar 

 groves, localities in which the ludovicianus is said never to be found. 



Dr. Cooper describes this bird as abundant in all the plains-region of Cali- 

 fornia, but not as far as the Columbia Eiver. South of latitude 38°, they reside 

 all the year. They were abundant about Fort Mohave all winter, and nested 

 as early as the 19th of March in a thorn-bush. They had young early ia 



