LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, 311 



Collurio ludomcianvts var. exouMtoroides, Wheaton, in Coues' Birds of N. W., 1874, 233 ; 

 Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for lb74, 565; Eeprint. 1875, 5. — COUBS, Birds 

 of N. W., 1874, 103.— Mkreiam, BqU. Nntt. Orn. Club, iii, 1878, 55— Langdon, Re- 

 vised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist, i, 1879, 174; Repriat, 8; Bull. Natt. Orn. 

 Club, iv, 1879, 120. 



Lanius ludovicianas yar. excubitorides, CoUBS, Birds of Col. Val., i, 1878, 563. 



Lanius exeubitorides, Swainson and RicnARDSON, Pn. Bor,-A.m., ii, 1631, 115. 

 Lanius excubitoroides, Baird, Rep. Gt. Salt Lake, 1852, 328. 

 Collyrio excKbitoroides, Baird, Birds N. Am , 1858, 527. 

 Collurio ludomdanus var. exoubitor aides, CouES, Key, 1872, 125. 



With the size and essential characters of head stripe of var. ludovidanus, and the nn- 

 der parts, as in that species, not or not obviously waved, but with the clear light ashy 

 upper parts, and hoary whitish saperciliary line, ecapnlars and rump of borealis. 



Habitat, middle province of North America, north to the Saskatchewan; east through 

 Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, New York, and Canada West. Rhode Island^ 

 California, 



Rare in Southern and Middle Ohio, probably more common in North- 

 ern-Ohio. Summer resident from. March to September. Breeds. The 

 history of this bird in Ohio is somewhat obscure. It was first noted in 

 my catalogue of 1860 (1861) on tlie authority of Dr. Kirtland and Mr. 

 Winslow. In 1862 and after, I found Shrikes not rare during summer in 

 the vicinity of Columbus, which I suppose to have been of this variety. 

 In 1873, with a single exception, the female mentioned on page 309, all 

 epeeimens examined by me were clearly referable to this variety, but after 

 this date they seem to have become darker yearly, only here and there a 

 male falling on the exeubitorides side of the line. Mr. Ridgway seems to 

 have noticed the same change, for in "Notes on Birds observed at Mount 

 Carmel, Southern Illinois, in the spring of 1878," (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, 

 iii, 1878, 164), he says: "Although in previous papers I have given the 

 White-rumped form (excuhitoroides) as the Shrike of this portion of the 

 country, all the specimens obtained during my recent visit were per- 

 fectly typical of the Southern race." 



Have we here an admixture of races, or are the differences to be con- 

 sidered simply sexual or individual, or, to draw the line sharply, were 

 the Loggerheads of 1874 the offspring of the White-rumped Shrikes of 

 1873? 



Mr. C. Hart Merriam, in Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, iii, 1858, 55, gives an 

 excellent resume of this subject, which I give entire ; 



" Concerning the 'Loggerhead Shrike,' the case, though in some respects parallel with 

 the above, is much more difScult of explanation, and has given rise to much confusion, 

 owing to the complication arising from the close relationship existing between the South- 

 ern and Western forms. Cooes, in his 'Key,' states that 'extreme examples of ludovi- 



