THE NEST IN THE PASTURE SPRUCE. 241 



only in winter; the latter, with its subspecies, is found in 

 summer all over the United States, and in the more southern 

 portions is the only shrike ever seen. The two look so much 

 alike when alive that the surest way of identifying them is by 

 the season when they are seen. In Maine the great northern 

 shrike arrives about the first of October and leaves about the 

 first of March, while the loggerhead arrives from the South 

 just in time to relieve him, and stays till the great northern 

 returns in the fall. Farther south, the northern bird spends a 

 shorter time and the southern bird a longer time on the field. 

 The only one known to nest in the United States is the logger- 

 head, with its subspecies, the Californian and the white-rumped 

 shrikes. Both species are medium-sized birds, gray above and 

 white below, with black wings and tail, marked with white, 

 and a black stripe across the forehead, extending down the 

 side of the head. Young birds lack the black markings and 

 are of a brownish color. Shrikes may be easily identified by 

 their color and by their habits, especially by their choice of 

 the topmost branches of a lone tree or of a fence-post, and by 

 their flying as if intending to alight below their perch and 

 suddenly rising to it with a bound. 



