58 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



In appearance both birds are much alike so much so that a 

 picture illustrating one might be used to illustrate the other. 

 Indeed, the illustration accompanying this chapter has been 

 used in one of our best bird books to illustrate the chapter on 

 the northern shrike. The loggerhead, however, differs from 

 the northern in size, being at least one inch shorter, and in 

 color, being much darker on the upper parts, and in having 

 the frontlet black. 



The bill of the loggerhead shrike is black, moderately 

 long, with culmen curved and the tip hooked ; lores black, con- 

 nected by narrow black line on the forehead at the base of the 

 bill; ear coverts, black; iris, hazel; upper parts, including les- 

 ser coverts, bluish-gray; wings black, with secondaries and 

 short primaries tipped with white and white patch at the base 

 of the primaries ; tail black, the outer web of the outside 

 feathers, and the tips of others, white ; under parts, white ; 

 feet black, small and sparrow-like. In appearance the sexes 

 are alike, but the female is the smallest of the two. Both are 

 beautiful birds. 



The range of the loggerhead shrike extends from the 

 Gulf of Mexico north on the Atlantic coast to New Jersey, and 

 in the interior to the Great Lakes, and w r est to the Great 

 Plains. It winters south of southern Indiana and Illinois and 

 Missouri. Nidification begins in April. I find that some of 

 the books say that the nest is usually found on the outer limbs 

 of trees, often from fifteen to thirty feet from the ground, and 

 that a thorn tree is the favorite place for it. The one in the 

 illustration was taken under the direction of Mr. F. M. Wood- 

 ruff about fourteen miles from Chicago. It was found in the 

 corner of an old osage orange hedge about eight feet from the 

 ground. In describing how the photograph was obtained he 

 says : "It took considerable time and patience to build up a 

 platform of fence boards and old boxes to enable the photog- 

 rapher to do his work. The half-eaten body of a young garter 

 snake was found about midway between the upper surface of 

 the nest and the limb above, where it had been hung for fu- 

 ture use." I have most frequently found them in thorn bushes 

 in the fence corners. The nest is a rough, shabby affair, gen- 

 erally composed of twigs, strips of bark, fine roots and grass, 



