138 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



wings and tail black and white; under parts grayish-white. Im. 

 in summer. — Top of head and back brownish-gray; breast washed 

 with brownish; black lines hardly extending beyond the eye, and 

 not meeting over the bill. 



Nest, in a thick bush or tree, often a hawthorn bush. Eggs, 

 whitish, thickly marked witli brown. 



The Migrant Shrike is a not uncommon summer resident 

 of the Lake Champlain Valley. It breeds rarely in the 



rest of northern New England, 

 and is a very rare migrant in 

 southern New England and 

 the Hudson Valley. Its habit 



of perching on the tips of trees 



or bushes, and its contrasting 



colors, gray, black, and white, 

 Fio.29. Migrant Shrike ^^^^ .^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^.^^ ^^^ 



recognize. It feeds on grasshoppers, frogs, and mice, and, to 

 a certain extent, on small birds, and impales its prey on 

 thorns. Its song is described as low and musical, and its 

 call-notes as harsh and unmusical. The ordinary shrike in 

 New England between October and April is the Northern 

 Shrike. The Migrant is over an inch smaller than its rela- 

 tive, and the black marks in front of the eyes meet across 

 the forehead. 



NoKTHEBN Shrike. Lanius borealis 

 10.32 

 Ad. — Upper parts ash-gray, becoming whitish on the forehead, 

 over the eye, and on the rump ; a blackish stripe back of the eye, 

 extending to the base of the bill, but not over it; wings and tail 

 black and white; under parts grayish- white, crossed with dark 

 wavy lines which show only at close range. Im. — Upper parts 

 grayish-brown; wings and tail duller; under parts much more 

 distinctly covered with wavy lines of dark gray. 



The Northern Shrike is a winter visitant in New York 

 and New England ; rare in some years, not uncommon in 



