336 LAND BIRDS 



622 a. WHITE-RUMPED SHRIKE. — Lanius ludwicianus 

 excubitorides. 



Family : The Shrikes. 



Length: 8.00-10.00. 



Adult : Upper parts pale bluish gray ; bill, lores, and nasal tufts black ; 

 rump whitish, under parts pure white, sometimes very lightly marked. 



Young : Similar, but colors less strongly contrasted, tinged with brown 

 and narrowly barred ; wing-coverts tipped with dull light buffy. 



Geographical Distribution: Western North America from eastern border 

 of the plains to Lower California, and from Manitoba to Mexico. 



California Breeding Range : East side of the Sierra Nevada from Shasta 

 valley, south to Lower California, chiefly below Transition zone. 



Breeding Season : April and May. 



Nest: Placed in hedges, scrubby, isolated little trees, thorn trees, 

 thickets. The nest is large, loose, and bulky ; composed of weed 

 stems, grasses, cornstalks, rootlets, paper, etc. ; thickly lined with 

 chicken feathers. 



Eggs: 4 to 6 ; grayish or yellowish white, marked and spotted with pur- 

 ple, light brown, or olive. Size 0.97 X 0.73. 



It is not easy, at a distance, to distinguish the White- 

 rumped from the more familiar California shrike ; but 

 while the former has pure white under parts, the entire 

 plumage of the latter is tinged more or less with brown- 

 ish, and the under parts are quite dingy, being covered 

 with wavy hair-lines of brown. The range is different, 

 but the two are likely to overlap somewhat in spite of 

 the dividing line of the Sierra Nevada. 



Both species indulge in the much censured habit of im- 

 paling their prey on thorns or on the barbs of a wire fence ; 

 but this is largely from necessity when the catch is either 

 mice or small birds, as the habits of the Shrikes in cap- 

 tivity have proved that they must have some such way 

 of fastening raw meat before they can tear it. 



