DESCRIPTIVE LIST 



265 



"The eggs, generally five in number, have a slaty ground-color, tinged with olive, 

 and are marked with blotches of dark brown and purple. Size about .85 x .60. The 

 only nest I ever found was forty feet high on the horizontal limb of a pine, being 

 constructed of weed stems lined with grass. The nest contained five eggs on June 

 13, 1890. 



"Personally I have noticed this species feeding on strawberries, mulberries, per- 

 simmons, frost-grapes, and the berries of cedar, privet, holly, and Ilex decidua." 

 C. S. BRIMLEY. 



49. FAMILY LAN1ID/E. SHRIKES 



Genus Lanius (Linn.) 



Three forms of this genus occur with us, all being very much alike. 



KEY TO SPECIES 



1. Wing 4.33 or more. Lower eyelid more or less white. Black on sides of head not meeting 

 across forehead. Northern Shrike. 



1. Wing 4.25 or less. Lower eyelid not white. Black on sides of head meeting across forehead. 



See 2. 



2. Wings longer than tail. Migrant Shrike. 



2. Wings shorter than tail. Loggerhead Shrike. 



262. Lanius borealis (Vieill). NORTHERN SHRIKE. 



Description: Ads. ^Upperparts gray; wings and tail black; primaries white at base, secondaries 

 tipped with white or grayish; outer, sometimes all, the tail-feathers tipped with white, the outer 

 feather mostly white; forehead whitish; lores grayish black; ear-coverts black; underparts white, 

 generally finely barred with black; bill hooked and hawklike. Im. Similar, but entire plumage 

 more or less heavily barred or washed with grayish brown. L., 10.32; W., 4.55; T., 4.00 B. from 

 N., .55. (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range Northern North America, south in winter to the Potomac and Ohio. 



Range in North Carolina. So far, only known from Pea Island. 



FIG. 214. NORTHERN SHRIKE. 



The Northern Shrike claims a place in our fauna on the strength of an immature 

 male killed on Pea Island, December 9, 1909, by Robertson and sent in the flesh 

 to Bishop. 



