COLBUEIO LUDOVICIANUS VAE. EXCUBITOROIDES. 



103 



(??) Lanius elegans, Sw., F. B. A. ii, 1831, 122 (said to be from the fur countries ; original 

 specimen iilentifieil by Dresser and Sharpe (P. Z. S. It70, 595) as belonging to 

 C. lahtora of Asia and Africa). 



Lanim eleyaim, Kurr., Man. i, 2d ed. 1840, 287.— Cass., Pr. Phila. Acad. 1857, 211!.— Bd., 

 B. N. A. 1858, 328, foot-note ; pi. 75, f. 1. 



CoUyrio elegans, Bd.. B. N. A. 1858, page xxxv. 



Collurio elegans, Bd., Rev. 18G6, 444.— CoOP., B. Cal. i, 1870, 140. 



Lanius mexicanus, BuEHM, J. f. O. ii, 1854, 145. — SCL., Cat. 18o;;, 46. 



Collurio lucloviciaiius var. robustus, Bd., Am. Nat. vii, 1873, 609 (.same specimen as for- 

 merly called C. elegans). — B. B. R., B. N. A. i, 1874, 420 (the same). 



Hab. — Middle Province of North America, to the Saskatchewan. East through Kan- 

 sas, Iowa, Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin, to New York and Canada West, probably into 

 New England. In the Southern States replaced by typical ludonleianus. On the Pacific 

 coast not observed north of California. South through Mexico. 



List of specimens. 



Lieutenant Warren's Expedition. — 8902-04, Upper Missouri River; 5312, Yellowstone 

 River ; 4649, White River ; 8801-03, L'eau qui court. 



Later Expeditions. — 60435, La Bont^ Creek, Wyoming ; 60768, Pacific Creek, Wyoming ; 

 61752, Utah ; 62271, Idaho. 



As I Stated in tbe "Key," "extreme examples of ludoricianus and ex- 

 cubitoroides look very different, but tbey are observed to melt into eacli 

 other when many si^ecimens are compared, so that no specitic character 

 can be assigned." The change takes place in the States just east of the 

 Mississippi ; typical ludovicianns I have only seen from tlie South Atlan- 

 tic States. Whatever the original L. elegans of Swainson may have 

 been, there seems to be little doubt that the elegans of Baird and Cooper 

 is the same as the excuhitoroides of the same authors. The doubt is, 

 whether the specimen of Dr. Gambel's, marked "California," really came 

 from that State; for some of Gambel's birds so labelled were certainly 

 procured elsewhere (for example, his Tyrannus bair/lii, which is a South 

 American species, the Tyrannus atri/rons of Sclater — a species of 2Iyio- 

 dynastes). The features of this specimen, if it be really American, may 

 have been individual peculiarities. I consider there is as yet nothing 

 upon which to base the belief that we have more than a single species 

 of Shrike in this country (aside from C. borealis), and that is G. ludovi- 

 cianus, of which a variety, with the above synonymy, occurs in the re- 

 gions above specified. 



I have not yet met with this bird on the Missouri. Dr. Hayden 

 reports it as being quite abundant, "especially along the Platte to the 

 Laramie Mountains, Black Hills, and Bad Lands. 1 found it breeding 

 abundantly in JSTorthern Dakota, beyond the Missouri Coteau, securing 

 newly-Hedged young late in .Tuly. The nest, just deserted, was placed 

 in a dense thicket, in the crotch of a bush, about five feet irom the 

 ground. It was a large, bulky, and inartistic structure, upon a, founda- 

 tion, of loosely interlaced twigs, as large as a man's hat. The nest proper 

 was about six inches wide outside, and three deep, composed eutiiely 

 of the stems and tops of a species of white weed growing in the vicinity, 

 inextricably matted with plaits of fibrous inner bark ; there was no 

 special lining or any circular disposition of the material. The nest was 

 very foul with excrement and, apparently, a scurfy exfoliation from the 

 plumage of the young. 



Mr. Allen, in the American Naturalist as quoted, gives the interesting 

 record of the breeding of excuhitoroides in New York State. A nest of 

 six eggs were taken in 1869, near Buffalo, New York. Mr. Mcllwraitli 



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