BIRDS OF NEW YORK 



359 



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conspictwusly tipped with white; tips of secondaries white; forehead, tips 

 of scapulars and the upper tail coverts whitish ; a broad black stripe from 

 the nostril down the side of the head; under parts grayish white narrowly 

 barred with blackish. Female: Similar but slightly smaller and the colors 

 dingier. Young: Like the female, more or less washed with brown, having 

 a tinge of buffy below. 



Length 10.1-10.5 inches; extent 14-15; wing 4.55-5; tail 4; bill .7; 

 tarsus .9. 



Distribution. The North- 

 ern shrike breeds from north- 

 western Alaska and northern 

 Ungava southward to south- 

 ern Saskatchewan and south- 

 ern Quebec ; winters southward 

 as far as central California, 

 Texas and Virginia. In New 

 York it is purely a winter 

 visitant, appearing from the 

 north from the 20th of October 

 to the 15th of November, and 

 disappearing in the spring 

 from the i8th to the 30th of 

 March, occasionally lingering 

 as late as the 12th of April. 

 It is not a common species 

 in any portion of the State, 

 but is distributed rather uni- 

 formly throughout the coun- 

 try districts and often enters the limits of towns and cities to feed on the 

 English sparrows which are easier prey than it can find in the wildernesses. 

 I have not noticed the Butcher bird as common as it formerly was in western 

 New York, during the last 15 years. Sometimes a whole winter passes 

 without my seeing a single specimen while traveling about the country, 

 but if I spend a day traveling over the broad uplands and across 





Mouse impaled on thorn by Northern shrike 



