^ // s j-tj 
iite? 
Collurio borealis.— The breeding of the Northern Shrike anywhere 
south of the Fur Countries is at present so much a matter of uncertainty, 
owing to the recently developed fact that the Loggerhead has frequently 
come in where he did not belong and wilfully muddled the records, that 
we cannot but think that Dr. Coues would have been wiser had he avoided 
taking any positive stand in this much disputed question. The comparison 
of its presence with that of the Black Snowbird, is manifestly inappro- 
priate, while the prophecy that “it will doubtless be found to breed in 
the highest parts of Massachusetts ” can scarcely be warranted by any 
of the known facts. 
Buli, N. O.O, Q,Qct, 1881 , P, J. 3 7 ■ 
The Great Northern Shrike in New England. - I wish to cor- 
rect an important error into which Dr. Coues has inadvertently fallen in 
his “ Birds of the Colorado Valley,” where he says : “ In narrating an 
instance of its nesting on a low spruce-tree in New Brunswick, within 
twelve miles of St. Stephen, Dr. Brewer is certainly mistaken in asserting 
that ‘ we know of a single recent instance in which this bird has bred 
with, n the limits of the United States.’ ” The error of Dr. Coues is in his 
supposition that the nest in question was in New Brunswick On the eon- 
trary, ,t was in the State of Maine, some twelve miles west of the town of 
St. Stephen, and about the same distance from any part of New Bruns- 
wick. This error may have been occasioned by an erratum that occurs in 
a sentence that follows the one quoted. This sentence should read • “ He 
has smee met with its nest within twelve miles of St. Stephen in New 
Brunswick.” In the work the last three words are out of their proper 
place. My positive statement that the nest had been found within the 
limits of the United States was no careless mistake, but the statement of a 
well-known fact of which I had full knowledge when I penned it. [t] 
Mr. Boardman informs me, in a recent letter, that up to the present time 
this has been the only instance in which he has met with the nest of this 
species, ami that he regards the Great Northern Shrike as a very rare bird 
in his neighborhood in the summer. So far as I now know, this is the 
only instance of its occurrence in New England. — T. M. Brewer Bos- 
ton, Mass. 
[t Dr. Brewer’s whole paragraph comes from a misinterpretation, doubtless 
unintentional, of my remarks. Dr. Brewer’s mistake, which I criticised, was 
in saying that “ we know of a single recent instance,” etc., tile fact being, that 
we know of many such instances, if the testimony of competent observers is to 
go for anything. See B. C. V., I, 561. — E. C.] 
/X4-/X / 
Bull N. 0.0. 4, April, 1870, p. 
