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THE LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. 



LaNIUS LUDOVICIANUS, LiNN. 

 PLATE LVII. Male akd Female. 



This species may with great propriety be called an inhabitant of the 

 *' Low Countries," as it is seldom or never met with even in the vicinity 

 of the mountains intersecting the districts in which it usually resides. It 

 is also confined to that portion of our country usually known under the 

 name of the Southern States, seldom reaching farther eastward than 

 North Carolina, or farther inland than the State of Mississippi, in which 

 latter, as well as in Louisiana, it appears only during the Avinter months. 

 Its residence may, therefore, be looked upon as confined to the Floridas, 

 Georgia, and the Carolinas. In these States, it is seen along the fences 

 and bushes about the rice plantations, at all seasons, and is of some ser- 

 vice to the planter, as it destroys the field-mice in great numbers, as well 

 as many of the larger kinds of grubs and insects, upon which it pounces 

 in the manner of a Hawk. 



The Loggerhead has no song, but utters a shrill clear creaking pro- 

 longed note, resembling the grating of a rusty hinge slowly moved to 

 and fro. This sound is heard only during the spring season, and whilst 

 the fem.ale is sitting. About the beginning of March these birds begin 

 to pair. They exhibit at this time few of those marks of the tender 

 affection which birds usually shew. The male courts the female without 

 much regard, and she, in return, appears to receive his haughty attentions 

 with merely just as much condescension as enables her to become the 

 mother of a family, whose feehngs are destined to be of the same cold 

 nature. 



The nest is fixed in a low bush, generally near the centre of a dwarf 

 hawthorn, and is so little concealed as to be easily discovered. It is 

 coarsely constructed of dry crooked twigs, and is lined with fibrous roots 

 and slender grasses. The eggs, which are of a greenish white, are from 

 three to five. Incubation is performed by the male as well as by the fe- 

 male, but each searches for its own food during the intervals of sittino- 



The young are at first fed on crickets, grasshoppers, and other in- 

 sects ; but as they become larger and stronger, they receive portions of 



