™im"'] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 613 



Brodie). Shell River : 1885, first seen, one male, on March 14 (Cal- 

 ciitt). Touchwood Hills (Macoun). Between Hudson's Bay and Lake 

 Winnipeg (on the Nelson Eiver), September 17, 1857 (Blakiston). Trout 

 Lake Station (Murray). 



April 5, 1882 : Snow 3 to 4 feet deep everywhere. In the woods to 

 the east shot a splendid Northern Shrike. The vermiculations on its 

 breast were almost obliterated. This was left on the roof of the shanty 

 until I had time to skin it. While at dinner we observed another 

 Shrike tearing at a bird on the snow, some yards away. On shooting 

 it I found it was also a boreaUs; its breast fully pencilled; and the 

 bird it was devouring was the other Shrike, which it had carried from 

 the roof. 



<Jn October 23 a Shrike came careering around the stacks after an 

 unfortunate Sparrow, which speedily took shelter under the litter. The 

 Shrike hovered over it like a Kestrel, and then swooi)ed. I now en- 

 tered on the scene, and fired, but missed him. He, however, left the 

 sparrow and dashed ofi" with such an aristocratic air and graceful ac- 

 tion that I almost felt I had been engaged in a very small piece of 

 business in thus interfering in the private affairs of a gentleman. 



W.i Paw Wisky John, or Groat Ash-colored Butcher Bird of Pennant, This bird 

 liarhors at all seasons in the year a little distance inland and makes a shrieking noise- 

 In April it hnilds a round nest of grass, straw, and feathers, neatly interwoven half 

 way up a juniper or pine tree, and lays four light-blue colored eggs. Time of incu- 

 bation, 15 days. (Hutchins' MSS. ; Observations on Hudson Bay, 17B2.) 



218. Lanius ludovicianus exciibitorides. White-rumped Slirike. Common 



Shrike. 



Common summer resident of half-wooded districts ; common breed- 

 ing; Pembina and Turtle Mountain (Coues). Winnipeg: Summer 

 resident; tolerably common (Hine). Shoal Lake May 15 and 20, 18S7 

 (Christy). Carberry : Common summer resident; breeding (Thomj)- 

 son). Shell Eiver: First seen, one male, March 14; next seen, one 

 female, summer resident; breeds near my station (Calcutt). Qu'Ap- 

 pelle : Common ; breeds (Guernsey). 



On May 22, 1884, on a barb of the wire fence, I found a brown cricket 

 firmly impaled. It was evidently not an accident, but the work of a 

 Shrike, for as crickets are found only in August, this must have been 

 in its present position for eight months. 



On May 25, found a large yellow burying beetle {Necropliagus) im- 

 paled on a barb of a wire fence, no doubt by a Shrike. 



On July G, went with Gordon Wright and Miller Christy to the Big 

 Slough on Pine Creek to see a spring that issues from a bed of petrified 

 moss. Found two nests of the Commou Shrike, the young of both broods 

 being fledged and able to fly. 



In November saw a number of grasshoppers impaled on the barbs of 

 the wire fence, evidently this had been the work of Shrikes. 



