White-rumped Shrike 429 
The following localities are recorded: Boulder co., rather uncommon 
(Henderson), Idaho Springs (Trippe), Denver (Smith), El Paso co. 
(Aiken), Las Animas co., November (Cary), Mesa Co., not common 
(Rockwell), Crested Butte (Warren), San Juan co. (Drew), La Plata co. 
(Morrison). 
Habits.—The Northern Shrike has a deserved repu- 
tation for cruelty and rapacity ; it is a solitary bird and 
frequents open country and cultivated land, where it 
takes up a conspicuous perch and watches for an 
opportunity of securing its prey. In the autumn this 
consists largely of grasshoppers, beetles and other fairly 
large insects, but later on when these have disappeared 
it pounces on mice and small birds, especially the Juncos 
and Horned Larks, and Sparrows about the towns. 
It flies direct from its perch, strikes and carries back 
its victim in its claws to its perch again to devour at 
leisure. It does not appear to impale its victims on 
the thorns and barbed wire to any extent as other Shrikes 
do. Its ordinary note is harsh, but it has a sweet and 
pleasant song according to Smith, especially agreeable 
in winter, when the woods are bare and there is little 
else to hear. 
White-rumped Shrike. 
Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 622a—Colorado Records—Baird 64, p. 445; 
Allen 72, p. 149; Aiken 72, p. 198; Henshaw 75, p. 233; Drew 81, 
p. 89; 85, p. 15; Allen & Brewster 83, p. 160 ; Beckham 87, p. 123; 
Morrison 88, p. 73; Smith 88, p. 163; 8. <“Bob White” 94, p. 138; Cooke 
97, pp. 18, 112, 217; Keyser 02, p. 98; Dille 03, p. 74; Henderson 
03, p. 108 ; 09, p. 239 ; Warren 06, p. 23 ; 08, p. 24 ; Gilman 07, p. 194; 
Markman 07, p. 158 ; Rockwell 08, p. 175. 
Description.—Adult Male—General colour above blueish-slaty-grey, 
becoming broadly white on the scapulars and rump, but hardly showing 
any white on the frontal and superciliary region ; a broad black patch 
from the base of the bill through the eye to the ear-coverts, this extends 
to the nasal tufts and the base of the culmen ; wings and tail black, 
the former with a white band across the base of the primaries; the tips of 
