THE OOLOGIST 3 
both big and little. Before he was 
fairly started, I sent the sixes at his 
big head and he was mine without a 
kick, 
It was a nice specimen and in fine 
plumage and measured six feet eleven 
inches in expanse. The BB’s I found 
on skinning had probably fatally hurt 
the bird, but it would probably have 
escaped me entirely if the sixes had 
not done the work. The strange part 
of it was that a crow had got caught 
and the eagle going to the bait had 
killed the crow and when I shot was 
eating it, The body was about half 
eaten and quite warm. 
Next day I saw a large bird flopping 
about in the trap so I went over and 
found a_ big black hawk that proved 
to be a Harlan’s. The next day I had 
to take up my trap as I was getting 
ready to leave for home, Before tak- 
ing it up a big Red-tail got in. This 
red-tail was an adult; quite light-col- 
ored underneath with hardly any 
markings. Its mate I flushed and shot 
from a bend in the gully, This one 
had killed a rabbit on which it was 
feasting when shot. 
From this experience I concluded 
that if I could have staid a little long- 
er and put out six or eight baits, 
more than one eagle would have 
come back with me. 
While there the last week in Sep- 
tember there was a flight of Swain- 
son’s Hawks. I saw as many as fifty 
three in one flock. They were not 
very shy and I shot a number in dif- 
ferent plumage. They fed entirely on 
grasshoppers. I never saw such num- 
bers of hawks as during the week they 
were about. 
R. B. SIMPSON. 
2 
The Migrant Shrike? 
The reading of Mr. Leach’s letter 
in the December Oologist set me to 
“On May 5, 
thinking about the old puzzle “Which 
shirke is it?” 
For several vears past I have seen 
and collected the eggs of our com- 
mon shirke, calling it Lanius ludovlcla- 
nus excubitorides; sets of six being 
almost always found here in first sets. 
On looking over back files of the Oolo- 
gist I have found that there is some 
confusion on the shrike question. 
In the December, 1904, Oologist, Mr. 
C, P. Alexander writes a rather long 
and interesting article on the White- 
rumped Shrike, telling of finding sev- 
eral nests near Gloversville, N. Y. 
All the notes he makes tally with my 
experience of the common shrike. He 
closes thanking ‘Mr. Benjamin Hoag 
for identifying properly these birds 
from descriptions I sent him.” 
In the Oologist for December, 1906, 
Editor Short says, in answer to R. F. 
M. who asks whether it is the White- 
rumped Shrike or the Loggerhead in 
Hennepin County, Minnesota: “The 
two forms unquestionably intergrade 
in Southern New York, Northern Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois 
and Nebraska.’ Short further says, 
“We draw a line (to divide the species) 
from Connecticut westerly through 
Southern New York, Northern Penn- 
sylvania and Northern Ohio straight 
to the Rockies.” 
In the December, 1907, Oologist, I 
find this from Mr. Alexander again: 
near Gloversville, I found 
a rest of Migrant Shrike in a thorn 
apple tree, ten feet up, containing six 
eggs.” In parenthesis Editor Short 
asks, ‘“‘Was this bird not Excubitor- 
ides?” (White-rumped Shrike.) 
Now Editor Barnes briefly tells Mr. 
Leach that his birds are Migrant 
Shrikes, thereby endorsing what L, A. 
Fuertes had previously told Leach. 
Is there not someone who can speak 
as one having authority about these 
birds, this newly-made variety? I 
think many would like to have this’ 
question settled for good. 
R. T. FULLER, Lacona, New York. 
