2^2 Palmkr, Our Small Easter7i Shrikes. [jiily 



bleaching and wearing. In viignins the male usually has pale 

 upper tail-coverts, bleaching in the breeding season to a dull, 

 dirty whitish. The stronger, duller colors of the females rarely 

 bleaching as much. At the end of the breeding season the 

 plumage usually presents a very ragged, bleached condition with 

 all the colors very much faded. The great difference, usually, 

 between the purer colors of the males and the darker, duller 

 colors of the females, the difference in size and the consequent 

 varying amount of bleaching of the sexes is responsible for the 

 identification, so common, of excuhitoroides as an eastern bird. 

 The plumage is always paler when fresh but soon darkens, 

 especially in 7nigrans^ where the contrast is greater. In this also 

 the contrast between the white throat and the darkish breast is 

 nearly always evident, and exceedingly rare in the southern bird. 



Literniediates arid Variations. 



Specimens from Greensboro, Alabama, in the Tombigbee River 

 Valley, are referable to ludoviciam/s^ but represent a tendency 

 toward migrans.^ the bill being slenderer and more hooked. A 

 specimen from Chester, South Carolina, is similar, as are also two 

 in Mr. Kohn's collection from Covington, Louisiana. These last 

 are evidently migrants from a more northern localit}', as breeding 

 birds from tli^e same region in. Mr. Kohn's collection are typical 

 ludoviciajius. In Dr. A. K. Fisher's collection are six specimens 

 from St. Helena Island, near Beaufort, South Carolina. These 

 also represent a variation in the direction of migrans. Though 

 having the large bill, the hook is more curved and longer. 



Certain specimens of migrans from Southern Illinois have stouter 

 bills than usual, as have also the birds breeding about Minneapolis, 

 Minnesota. These evidently represent groups of individuals with 

 restricted habitats in the valleys of large rivers. Their having 

 the fourth quill longer than the third, or equal to it, would indi- 

 cate that their migratory range is not extensive. 



Measure77ients. 



Measurements were made of nearly all the specimens grouped 

 by States. These show that the birds taken at the most north- 



