The Northwestern Shrike 
Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: A well-constructed bowl of 
sticks, thorn-twigs, grasses, and trash, heavily lined with plant-down and feathers; 
in bushes and low trees. Eggs: 3 to 7; dull white or greenish gray, thickly dotted and 
spotted with olive-green, brown, or vinaceous gray. Av. size, 27.2 x 19.8 (1.07 x .78). 
Range of Lanins borealis. —Northern North America; south in winter to the 
middle and southern portions of the United States. Breeds north of the United 
States, except sparingly in New England. 
Range of L. b. invictus. —Alaska south in winter, sparingly, to Pacific Coast 
states. Eastern delimitations of range imperfectly made out. 
Occurrence in California. —Rare midwinter visitor in northern California— 
half a dozen records. 
Authorities.—Gambel ( Lanius septentrionalis) , Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 
vol. iii., 1847, p. 201 (Calif.); Feilner , Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst., 1865, pp. 422, 425 
(Shasta and Siskiyou counties); Cones , Birds Col. Val., 1878, pp. 535, 558 (syn., habits, 
hist., nomencl., etc.) ; Belding, Land Birds Pac. Dist., 1890, p. 197 (Nicasio and Marys¬ 
ville); Judd , U. S. Dept. Agric., Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 9, 1898, p. 15 (food); Grinnell, 
Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 1, 1900, p. 54 (orig. desc.; type locality Kowak River, Alaska; 
meas., habits, etc.). 
FLITTING like a gray ghost in the wake of the cheerful hosts of 
Juncoes and Redpolls, comes this butcher of the North in search of his 
accustomed prey. If it is his first visit south he posts himself upon the 
tip of a tree and rasps out an inquiry of the man with the gun. Those 
that survive these indiscretions are thereafter faintly descried in the 
distance, either in the act of diving from some anxious summit, or else 
winging swiftly over the inequalities of the ground. 
All times are killing time for this bloodthirsty fellow, and even in 
winter he “jerks” the meat not necessary for present consumption—be 
it chilly-footed mouse or palpitating Sparrow—upon some convenient 
thorn or splinter. In spring, the north-bound bird is somewhat more 
amiable, being better fed, and he pauses from time to time during the 
advance to sing a strange medley, which at a little remove sounds like a 
big electric buzz. This is meant for a love song, and is doubtless so 
accepted by the proper critics, but its rendition sometimes produces 
about the same effect upon a troop of finches which a cougar’s serenade 
does upon a cowering deer. 
Experts try to make out that this creature is beneficial, “on the 
whole,” because of the insects he devours, but I have seen too much good 
red blood on this butcher’s beak myself. My gun is loaded! 
Fortunately, owing to the retarding influence of the milder climate 
of the Pacific Northwest, this bloodthirsty species does not often appear 
below our northern boundary. But when he does so, it is not to be 
supposed that there is always a birdman with a gun right at hand, so 
the five or six scattered records which have been preserved hint at hun¬ 
dreds which might have been made. 
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