BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
261 
trees and bushes. They sometimes visit towns and prey on English 
Sparrows. Shrikes feed chiefly on grasshoppers and beetles, and when 
these are not easily obtained they subsist on mice and small birds. The 
Northern Shrike, assassin-like, will conceal himself in bushes and imi- 
tate the cries of other birds, and when they come sufficiently near his 
ambush he will, to their great consternation, tly into their midst and 
seize one of their number. 
Lanius ludovicianus Linn. 
Loggerhead Shrike ; Bmcher-hird. ^ 
Description {Plate 96). 
Length about 9 ; extent ll^ ; wing 4 ; tail 4 ; tarsus 1.03 ; above slate colored ; scap- 
ulars, rump and upper tail-coverts lighter ; below white ; pale grayish on sides ; 
some specimens have lower parts partly waved with dusky lines, but others, especially 
full plumaged adults lack these lines ; feathers about nostrils, lores, broad streak 
back of eye, and below the eye also, bill and legs (old birds) black ; wings and tail 
black ; tips of secondaries and basal half of primaries white ; and tail feathers are 
marked with white as in borealis. The young and immature birds differ consider- 
ably from the adult as above described, but they have a sufficient resemblance to be 
identified by comparison with plate and description. 
Habitat. — More southern portions of eastern United States ; north regularly to 
southern Illinois, central Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania, etc. In eastern and 
central Pennsylvania this species and also excubitorides is seldom met with. 
The Loggerhead Shrike is a common summer resident from late in 
April until about the middle of September, in Erie and Crawford coun- 
ties. It is said to breed, sometimes, in Lawrence and Mercer counties ; 
but in other sections of the state this bird, and also the White-rumped 
Shrike, has been observed, so far as I can learn, only as an irregular 
visitor during migrations, especially in the fall. The following remarks, 
with relation to this Butcher-bird, as it is called in the Erie region, are 
taken from my note book : “ Erie city. May 20, 1889. To-day Mr. Geo. 
B. Sennett and I drove out about three miles east of the city ; "on the 
road shot three adult shrikes (two males and female), and secured their 
nests and young. Both nests were built in thorn trees ; one nest in a 
field near the edge of a woods, contained four young, two or three days 
old, and two eggs. This nest was placed eight feet from the ground, 
and constructed of small twigs, dried grasses, and plant fibers with an 
abundance of feathers and cotton. The other nest was situated about 
four and a half feet from the ground, directly over a cow-path in a 
meadow ; it had evidently been disturbed as it was insecurely placed, 
being partly turned over. This nest, containing two half fledged males, 
was composed almost entirely of plant-fiber and chicken feathers ; a few 
small twigs only being on the outside ; measures inside of cavity four 
and one-half inches wide and two and one-half inches in depth.” 
“ Erie, May 21, 1889. To-day Mr. Sennett and I found three nests of 
shrikes east of the city, all were built in thorn or wild crab apple trees 
