SHRIKES 87 



evidently pursues his calling with no regrets and when 

 spring time approaches adds his voice to the chorus of bird 

 song. 



LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE 



Lanius ludovicianus ludovicianus. Cose 4, Fig. 55 



A gray bird with black wings and tail marked with white which 

 shows in flight; smaller than the Northern Shrike with a black 

 forehead and unmarked breast. L. 9. 



Range. Florida north to North Carolina, west to Louisiana. 



The Loggerhead has the general habits of his larger 

 northern cousin the "Butcher-bird," but he feeds, as a rule, 

 on smaller game. Grasshoppers and lizards form the 

 larger part of his fare and the barbed wire fences not 

 infrequently are his shambles. A flight is ended by an 

 upward swing to the chosen perch which may be a tree- 

 top, a telegraph wire, or lightning-rod tip. From such 

 a lookout he keeps a sharp watch for his prey, which he 

 detects at surprisingly long distances; meanwhile utter- 

 ing the gurgles, squeaks and pipes which constitute his 

 song. The nest is built in hedges or low trees in early 

 March. The 3-5 eggs are dull white thickly marked with 

 brown and lavender. 



The Migrant Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus migrans) is 

 a northern race of the Loggerhead from which it differs 

 only in being somewhat paler above and grayer below. 

 It is a Summer Resident from Kansas and western North 

 Carolina to Minnesota and Maine and winters from the 

 Middle States southward. 



Generally speaking, it may be said that any Shrike found 

 north of Maryland in the winter is a Northern Shrike; 

 that any Shrike found north of Virginia in the summer is 

 a Migrant Shrike, and that any Shrike found south of 

 that state in the summer is a Loggerhead. 



