No. 412.] SMALLER NORTH-AMERICAN SHRIKES. 273 
We have in the shrikes the following eight important variable 
characters : 
Length of tail. 
Length of wing. 
Length of bill. 
Depth of bill. 
. Curvature of culmen. 
Color of dorsal surface of head and back. 
Color of upper tail coverts. 
Color of breast. 
Sey An EY No 
II. MATERIAL. 
While the shrikes make good subjects for a study of varia- 
tion, there has been an unfortunate difficulty in obtaining 
material in amounts as large as is desirable. Shrikes are not 
especially common birds in the regions most collected in, and 
they are considered rare inmost parts of New England. They 
are certainly not abundantly represented in collections of birds, 
and many of the skins that were obtained were imperfect, or 
did not come from the breeding areas of the birds. 
I have been able to procure measurements of two hundred 
and ninety-four available skins, obtained from the following 
sources : 
Mr. William Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. . . + + - 174 skins. 
National Museum, Washington, D.C. . . + + + + 64 * 
Museum of Comparative Zodlogy . . < - + + * + 18. 4 
Mr. J. H. Gaut, Washington, D. C. ido one ais de Saee od esl 
Mr. C. F. Batchelder, Cambridge, eg EINEN E. 
Dr. A. K. Fisher, Washington, D e f ^ 
Mr. N. Hollister, Delavan, Wis. . MU M eg pow 
Oberlin College Museum, Oberlin, Ohio y 
Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg, Pa. : ) oW 
Mr. William Palmer, Washington, D. c boot 
The numbers given do not include skins which, for various 
reasons, could not be used. I wish here to express my thanks 
to the gentlemen who have secured for me the loan of the 
above-mentioned material, and especialy to Mr. William 
Brewster for many courtesies received. 
