LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, 163 



is, according to Dr. Bachman, usually made in the outer limbs 

 of a tree such as the live-oak or sweet-gum, and often on a 

 cedar 15 to 30 feet from the ground. It is coarsely made of 

 dry crooked twigs, and Imed with root-fibres and slender grass. 

 The eggs, 3 to 5, are greenish white. Incubation is per- 

 formed by both sexes in turn, but each bird procures its own 

 food in the intervals. They rear two broods in the season. 

 Its manners resemble those of a Hawk; it sits silent and 

 watchful until it espies its prey on the ground, when it pounces 

 upon it, and strikes first with the bill, in the manner of small 

 birds, seizing the object immediately after in its claws ; but it 

 seldom attacks birds except when previously wounded. 



The Loggerhead is now said to be restricted to the southern 

 portion of the Eastern States north to Ohio and southern Illinois ; 

 but birds have been found breeding in Vermont, Maine, and New 

 Brunswick that resembled true liidovicianus more than excubito- 

 rides^ to which variety some authorities have referred them. 



Note. — The White-rumped Shrike (Z. ludovicianus excu- 

 bitorides) is a pale form, usually restricted to the Western plains, 

 but ranging occasionally through the region of the Great Lakes, 

 east to northern New England and the Maritime Provinces of 

 Canada. 



