Palmer, Our Small Eastern Shrikes. 
fAuk 
Lluly 
244 
Auk, XV, July, 1898 , 
OUR SMALL EASTERN SHRIKES. 
BY WILLIAM PALMER. 
Three Shrikes are universally understood to occur in North 
America east of the Plains. The Northern Shrike (Lanins borealis), 
a winter visitant in our eastern States ; the Loggerhead ( L . ludo- 
vicianus), which is considered a fairly common bird over most of 
the region between Maine and Florida and Ohio and Illinois to 
Louisiana; and the White-rumped (Z. 1 . excubitoroides'), which is 
supposed to inhabit Canada, Michigan, and westwards. 
An examination of considerable material, 176 specimens, com- 
pels me to relegate excubitoroides to the Plains region west of the 
immediate Mississippi wooded drainage area ; ludovicianus to the 
South Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and Florida, and to recognize a 
new form as occupying much of the remaining region of the East. 
Historical Synopsis. 
The name Lanius ludovicianus was first given by Brisson 1 to a 
bird from the region then known as Louisiana. On his description 
Linnaeus 2 3 4 based his binomial name composed of the same words. 
Vieillot 8 describes two Shrikes, one Lanius borealis, the other 
Z. ardosiaceus , whose habitat he gives as Georgia, Florida, and 
Louisiana. 
Wilson knew but two Shrikes, one the northern, which he called 
Z. excubitor, thinking it identical with the European bird, and his 
Lanius carolinensis 4 which he found on his visit to South Carolina 
and Georgia. Of this he says : “ This species inhabits the rice 
plantations of Carolina and Georgia, where it is protected for its 
usefulness in destroying mice.” We may be sure that Wilson 
1 Orn., II, 1760, 162, pi. 15, fig. 2. 
S S. N., I, 1766, 134. 
3 Ois. Am. Sept., I, 1807, 81. 
4 Am. Orn., Ill, 1811, 57, pi. 22, fig. 5. 
