291 



LOGGEHHEAD SHRIKE. 

 Lanius ludovicianus. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length, about eight and one-half inches; extent, eleven and 

 one-half; tail, four; above slate-colored; scapulars, rump, and 

 upper tail coverts lighter. Below white; pale grayish on sides; 

 Some specimens have lower parts partly waved with dusky 1 nas, 

 but others, especially full-plumaged adults, lack these Knes; 

 feathers about nostrils, lores, broad streak back of eye, and below 

 the eye also, likewise bill and legs (old birds), are black. The 

 wings and tail are black; tips of secondaries (second size quills 

 of wings) and basal half of primaries (large wing quillsj 

 white. Tail feathers as in the Northern Shrike are marked 

 with white. 



Habitat, — More southern portions of Eastern United States; 

 north regularly to Southern Illinois, Central Ohio, Northwest- 

 ern Pennsylvania, etc. In Eastern and Central Pennsylvania, 

 this species and also the variety called White-rumped is seldom 

 met with. 



The Loggerhead Shrike is a commou summer bird 

 in Erie and Crawford counties. It is said to breed also 

 iu Lawrence, Mercer and so-me other of the counties in 

 Western Pennsylvania. The following remarks con 

 cerning this Butcher-bird, as it it best known to fann- 

 ers and poultrers in the Erie region, are taken from 

 my note book. 



"Erie City, May 20, 1889. To-day Mr. Geo. B. Sennett and I 

 drove out a'bout three miles east of the city; and on the road 

 shot three adult Shrikes (two males and female), and secured 

 their nests and young. 



THE NEST, EGGS AND YOUNG. 



Both nests were built in thorn trees. One nest in a field 

 near the edge of a woods contained four young, two or three 

 days old, and two eggs. The other nest was situated about 

 four and a half feet fro'm the ground, directly over a cow- 

 path in a meadow; it had evidently been disturbed as it was 



