206 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



in force when our early cherries are ripening until the middle 

 of June, and as early as the middle of August, when the wild 

 cherries and grapes are getting ripe, we meet them again in flocks, 

 but this time with fully grown young, known by their streaked 

 underparts. It is probable that all the young ones which we see 

 in August are bred in the state, but there is no bird more secre- 

 tive than the Cedarbird in breeding time. We never hear it, 

 because it has nothing to say, being always alone, and, when 

 we happen to see one, which is seldom, it seems in great haste 

 to go to a place far away. It may nest in our own garden or 

 orchard and we will not be the wiser until perchance one of the 

 youngsters comes to our door, or, what has actually happened 

 to the writer, into the house itself, before it can fly. That it 

 used to nest in the city of St. Louis is attested by Mr. Philo W. 

 Smith, Jr., who found nests in Tower Grove Park in 1900 and 

 in North St. Louis in 1891. Mr. C. W. Prier found a nest, 

 July 16, 1903, in an orchard in Appleton City, and the species 

 is given as a breeder in Lawrence Co., by Mr. H. Nehrling; 

 in Warrensburg by Mr. A. F. Smithson; in Keokuk by Mr. 

 E. S. Currier. Orchards, cemeteries, city parks, and the shade 

 trees in the immediate surroundings of houses in the country, 

 seem to be the places where we have to look for their nests from 

 the middle of June to the end of July. Though we may meet 

 with flocks of Cedarbirds in any month of the year, there are 

 certain times when we can count on seeing them with us regularly 

 and in numbers. This is the time of the mulberries and first 

 cherries in May, and of the abundance of wild fruit of many kinds, 

 wild cherries, grapes, hackberries, smilax, etc., from the latter 

 part of August to the middle of October. During the day they 

 roam in search of food in troops of thirty or more and in the 

 evening assemble in large numbers at a common roost, prefer- 

 able the willows in the river bottoms. They are great wan- 

 derers and, although withdrawing from the state during the 

 coldest spells of winter, the first flocks are back again as soon 

 as the weather moderates, be this in January, February or 

 March. 



Family laniidae. Shrikes. 



621. Lanius bokealis Vieill. Northern Shrike. 



Lanius excubitor. Collyrio borealis. Collurio borealis. Butcherbird. 



Geog. Dist. — Northern North America, breeding from Labra- 

 dor and Saskatchewan north to Alaska. In winter south 



