S«m* Birds of L«wi s Co, N T 
C.IIart M ‘rriam * 
“ Collurio ludovicianus [var. excubitoroides, see below]. Logger- 
head Shrike. — I shot a fine adult male September 24, 1877. Through 
the kindness of Mr. A. M. Church, I have examined a nest and five eggs 
of this bird, taken here May 11, 1877. He secured the female as she left 
the nest. 
Concerning the “ Loggerhead Shrike,” the case, though in some 
respects parallel with the above, is much more difficult of ex- 
planation, and has given rise to much confusion, owing to the com- 
plication arising from the close relationship existing between the 
Southern and Western forms. Coues, in his “ Key,” states that “ ex- 
treme examples of ludovicianus and excubitoroides look very differ- 
ent, but they are observed to melt into eacli other when many 
specimens are compared, so that no specific character can be as- 
signed,” and if the doctor had substituted the term varietal for 
specific, he would have hit equally near the truth. The fact is, 
there is so little difference between Eastern examples of excubitor- 
oides and the Southern bird that they have often been confounded, 
and it is practically almost impossible to distinguish them. My 
own opinion is that the locality whence the specimen came fur- 
nishes the most valuable clew to its identity. In a specimen 
(t?, juv.) taken by Mr. Dayan at Lyon’s Falls, Lewis County, New 
York, September 4, 1877, the light ash of the upper parts contrasts 
strongly with the “dark plumbeous-ash ” of typical Southern exam- 
ples of ludovicianus in the cabinet of Mr. George N. Lawrence, to 
whose kindness I am indebted for the comparison, and for many 
other favors. In other respects the bird more closely approaches 
the Southern form. The Western bird breeds abundantly in Ohio 
(Wheaton), and was first observed in Canada West (near Hamilton) 
by Mcllwraith about the year 1800, since which date it has bred 
regularly in that locality. Allen, in 1869, published in the “Ameri- 
can Naturalist” (p. 579) the first record of its breeding in New York 
State (“ near Buffalo ”), and Rathbun (in the list above referred to) 
gives it as breeding at Auburn, inlthe central portion of the State. 
Fred. J. Davis, Esq., informs me that he has taken several of its 
nests in the vicinity of Utica, and the fact of its breeding in Lewis 
County (Dayan, above) completes its eastern range to the Adiron- 
dacks. Beyond this barrier it is not, to my knowledge, found, ex- 
cepting as a rare straggler ; and most of the New England speci- 
mens have commonly been regarded as accidental visitors from 
the South. Mr. Purdie, however, in this Bulletin (Yol. II, No. 1, 
p. 21, 1877), records the capture of a “typical” specimen of var. 
excubitoroides at Cranston, R. I., September 2, 1873, by Fred. T. 
Jencks. This is, so far as I am aware, the only recognized in- 
stance of the capture of the Western form in New England. As 
a pretty conclusive proof that our New York bird has been derived 
from the Western ( excubitoroides ) “ type,” we have the fact of the 
continuity of its range eastward from the Mississippi to the Adiron- 
dacks (through Ohio to Buffalo, Auburn, Utica, and Lewis County, 
New York) ; while, on the other hand, its entire absence from those 
portions of the State whore the Carolinian Fauna is most marked 
(notably along the Hudson River, where such characteristic birds as 
Icteria virens , Myiodioctes mitratus, Helmitherus vermivorus, and 
Siurus motadlla breed in abundance) is sufficient evidence that it 
is not the Southern bird. That it does not occur in the region 
above specified is pretty clearly shown by the fact that neither Ed- 
gar A. Mearns (of Highlarid Falls, near West Point) nor Eugene P. 
Bicknell (of Riverdale), two of our most enterprising young collec- 
tors, have ever met with even a single straggler of the genus, other 
than C. borealis , although they have both made the birds of the 
Hudson River Valley a special study. 
(To be continued.) 
Bull. N.O.O, 3, April, 1878. p. 53 ^ 
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