289 



GREAT NORTHERN SHRIKE. 

 Lauius boiealis. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length about ten and one-half Inches; extent about four- 

 teen; tall about four and three-fourths; above pale bluish-gray, 

 whitening on upper tall-coverts and scapulars; and some speci- 

 mens have upper parts faintly tinged with pale rusty; below 

 whitish (sometimes tinged with pale brown), breast and sides 

 "waved" with dusky or grayish lines; lores and a broad streak 

 back of eye black; wings and tail blackish; the primaries (large 

 wing quills) are white from base to aibout half their length; 

 nearly all tail feathers have white tips and outer webs of lat- 

 eral ones are white. 



Habitat. — Northern North America, south in the winter to the 

 middle portions of United States (Washington, D. C, Kentucky. 

 Kansa.'!, Colorado, Arizona, etc.). 



This species although recorded by Di-. W. I'. Turn 

 bull, as a summer resident "on the mounlaiu ridges of 

 the Alleghenies," do<?s not, I am quite positive, evei- 

 breed within our limits. The Shrike or Butcher-bird 

 which rears its family in Pennsylvania, and is common, 

 particularly in the northwestern section of the Com- 

 monwealth, is the Loggerhead which in many jnstances 

 is mistaken for its larger :ind more powerful relative, 

 which in the summer season retires usually beyond (he 

 northern United States to rear its young. 



The Northern Shrike is more frequently iiiel witli in 

 the upper than the lower half of Pennsylvania where 

 it is found as a winter sojourner from November to 

 April. It frequents briery thickets, thorn hedges, and 

 grassy fields near trees and bushes. Birds of this 

 species sometimes visit towns and prey on English 

 Sparrows. Shrikes feed chiefly on grasshoppers and 

 beetles, and when these are not easily obtained they 



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