44 ME. GAMBEL ON THE BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA. 



ICTERIA, Vieill 



63. I. viRTDis, (Gmel.) Bonap. Yellow-breasted Chat. 



The Chat arrives in California about the middle of April, and resorts to the hedges 

 of vineyards, gardens and bushy places, vv'here no doubt it breeds 



It is very extensively distributed on our continent, as I observed it also common 

 along the coast of Peru. 



VIREO, Vieill 



64. V. soLiTARius, Vieill. Solitary Vireo. 



During the latter part of summer and winter, tlie young birds of this species are 

 abundant, frequenting low bushes and thickets, in small flocks. 



L ANIUS, Li7in. 



65. L. LUDOViciANUS, Linn. Loggerhead Shrike. 



L. excubitoroides, Swains. Northern Zool., p. 115, pi. 34. 



In the Shrikes we are. presented with a group of birds closely allied to each other, 

 and undergoing such changes in plumage as renders them difficult to discriminate. 

 Although examined with great care by Swainson in the Fauna Boreal i- Americana, 

 yet he appears to have laid too much stress upon characters subject to great variation; 

 as size, relative length of quills and colour. 



The adult of the Loggerhead is a beautiful bird, and might well have been called 

 excubitoroides, for the resemblance in colour and markings to the European excubitor 

 is very great. Above, it is of a clear pearl grey colour, with the upper tail coverts, 

 and exterior edges of the scapulars, nearly pure white ; beneath pure white ; the 

 quantity of white on the tail feathers varies, but generally is in proportion to the age 

 of the bird. 



The relative length of quills in the Shrikes is an uncertain character, and differs 

 very much according to age. In the young of this species, the second quill is gene- 

 rally much shorter than the sixth, but in the adult, equals and may even exceed the 

 sixth in length ; the proportion of the third, fourtli and fifth to each other is also 

 exceedingly various, and indeed in each wing of the same bird it is very common to 

 find the proportions of the quills differing very materially. This I have found to be 

 the case in specimens of the European and both American species. 



It is rather strange that this bird so abundant in the southern, western and north 

 western portions of our country, should not be found in the middle and northern 

 Atlantic states. In California it is very common. 



66. L. SEPTENTRioNALis, Gmel. Northern Shrike. 



L. borealis, Vieill. Swains. 

 I found our Butcher Bird in the Californian ridge of mountains in November, but 



