^'iScjs^] Palmer, Our Small Easlem Shrikes. 247 



both names being variously used, even in one case, both of them, 

 for the birds of a mated pair! until now it is considered that 

 except in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Canada, ludovi- 

 cianus is the only form found. 



Dr. Wheaton ^ gives Lanius ludovicianus as, a " Common sum- 

 mer resident in Middle, less common in Northern and Southern 



Ohio First ascertained to occur in Ohio by myself in 1874, 



a female specimen, taken May 31, 1873, O'^ which my note in 

 Coues' Birds of the Northwest was in part based, proving a nearly 

 typical specimen of this variety. Her mate was an equally well 

 marked individual of var. excubitor aides." On page 311, he says 

 of this latter, " Rare in southern and middle Ohio, probably more 

 common in northern Ohio. Summer resident from March to 

 September. Breeds." On page 312 he says of excuhiforoides : 

 " Thus it appears that this variety has extended its range east- 

 ward from the Mississippi Valley mainly along the basin of the 

 Great Lakes." 



Raymond VV. Smith, ^ speaking of the birds of Warren County, 

 Ohio, gives Z. ludovicianus as " uncommon summer resident," and 

 of L. 1. excuhiforoides as " resident, probably breeds." He also 

 says : " The Shrikes of this locality are just on the border line 

 between the Loggerhead and the White-rumps, and in many cases 

 it is almost impossible to distinguish the variety." 



The A. O. U. Check-List of 1886 gave the range of ludovicianus 

 as " Florida, the Carolinas, and the Gulf States east of Texas." 

 In the list of 1895 this became "Eastern United States, west to 

 the Plains ; north to northern New England. Breeds from the Gulf 

 States to Virginia and casually north, on the Atlantic Coast to 

 southern New Jersey ; in the interior, northward to the Great 

 Lakes, and through western Pennsylvania and New York to New 

 Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine." 



It would seem that, generally, the test of whether a particular 

 bird belonged to either ludovicianus or excubiioroides.^ depended on 

 the presence of dark, or white (= pale) upper tail-coverts, the 



1 Birds of Ohio, 1880, 309. 



* P- -dZ- 



•'Journ. Am. Soc. N. Hist., 1891, 122. 



