LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. 
163 
is, according to Dr. Bachman, usually made in the outer limbs 
of a tree such as the live-oak or sweet-gum, and often on a 
cedar 15 to 30 feet from the ground. It is coarsely made of 
dry crooked twigs, and lined with root-fibres and slender grass. 
The eggs, 3 to 5, are greenish white. Incubation is per- 
formed by both sexes in turn, but each bird procures its own 
food in the intervals. They rear two broods in the season. 
Its manners resemble those of a Hawk; it sits silent and 
watchful until it espies its prey on the ground, when it pounces 
upon it, and strikes first with the bill, in the manner of small 
birds, seizing the object immediately after in its claws ; but it 
seldom attacks birds except when previously wounded. 
The Loggerhead is now said to be restricted to the southern 
portion of the Eastern States north to Ohio and southern Illinois ; 
but birds have been found breeding in Vermont, Maine, and New 
Brunswick that resembled true huiirdiciamis more than excubito- 
rides, to which variety some authorities have referred them. 
Note. — The White-rumped Shrike (Z. ludovicianus excu- 
bitorides) is a pale form, usually restricted to the Western plains, 
but ranging occasionally through the region of the Great Lakes, 
east to northern New England and the Maritime Provinces of 
Canada. 
