SHRIKES: Family Laniidae [ 489 ] 



toridesj under -parts didl ivhite or grayish, darker on sides, breast usually distinctly ver- 

 miculated and sometimes tinged with pale brown. Young: like adults but base of 

 lower mandible light colored, general colors less strongly contrasted, washed with 

 brown and narrowly barred, the wing coverts tipped with buffy. (Adapted from 

 Bailey.) Si%e: Length 8-10, wing 3.70-4.00, tail 3.75-4.50, bill from nostril .43- 

 .48, depth of base .30-. 35. Nest: In trees, hedges, or cactus, a bulky structure of 

 sticks, leaves, wool, and feathers. Eggs: 4 to 6, grayish to yellowish white, spotted 

 with brown and lilac. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from interior valleys of British Columbia south to 

 Lower California and east to Montana and Utah. Winters in California and Mexico. 

 In Oregon: Common summer resident and breeding species east of Cascades. Rare or 

 accidental west of that range. 



THE CALIFORNIA SHRIKE (Plate 83, A) arrives in Oregon from the south 

 in numbers about the time its larger northern cousin begins to leave its 

 winter quarters, so that there is a gradual replacement of one species by 

 another, a process that is reversed in the fall. Bendire (Brewer 1875) 

 listed it from Camp Harney and published breeding data for the same 

 locality (Bendire 1877). Merrill (1888) recorded it from Fort Klamath. 

 Woodcock (1902.), on the basis of A. W. Anthony's observations, stated 

 that it was found at Sparta. He regarded it as an uncommon winter 

 visitor to Corvallis. Peck (191 la), Walker (1917^, Willett (1919), and 

 Prill (192.4) recorded it from various localities in eastern Oregon. 



Our own voluminous notes and those of other members of the Biological 

 Survey who have worked in Oregon present a better picture of its status 

 than these rather fragmentary published records. We find it to be a regu- 

 larly distributed and conspicuous member of the avifauna throughout the 

 summer months over all of the eastern section of the State, arriving in 

 February or early March (earliest date, February 9, Lake County) and 

 remaining until late October (latest date, November 14, Harney County). 

 There are shrikes on the telephone and fence wires throughout the year, 

 but there is little danger of confusion of records save for a short time in 

 spring and again in the fall. This is the summer bird that keeps vigil 

 along the highway with the western kingbirds through the long, hot 

 summer days. We have only one record for western Oregon, a bird col- 

 lected by Jewett at Medford, March 19, 1934. 



The nests are bulky affairs of sticks, usually placed in junipers or small 

 deciduous trees, that are often easily located by the grasshoppers, beetles, 

 or small mammals or birds found impaled on thorns or on the barbs in 

 wire fences in the vicinity of the nest. The birds commence to lay in 

 early April along the Columbia and persist till well toward the first of 

 June at some of the higher elevations. Available egg dates extend from 

 April 8 to May 2.0. Fresh eggs are undoubtedly present at a later date, as 

 Jewett found a freshly built nest as late as May 2.1, 1917, near Plush. 



