596 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
outside , and the feet large and strong. Carnivorous, feeding on 
insects and such small birds and quadrupeds as they can capture 
and overpower, they often impale their prey on thorns or sharp 
twigs to return to in time of need. In preparing their food they tear 
it apart with their powerful toothed and hooked bill, the size, shape, 
and strength of which recalls the bill of a bird of prey. Like other 
birds that swallow hard, indigestible food, the Shrikes eject it in the 
form of pellets. 
Reference—Beal, F. E. L., and W. L. McAtee. U. S. Dept. Agr. Farmers’ 
Bull. 506, 1915. 
NORTHERN SHRIKE: L&nius borealis Vieillot 
Description. — Length: 9.2-10.7 inches, wing 4.3-4.G, tail 4.5-4.T, bill from 
nostril .5, tarsus 1. Adults: Upperparts light bluish gray , changing to white on fore¬ 
head, superciliary , posterior scapulars , and upper tail coverts; tail and wings black, 
outside tail feathers almost wholly white and all the rest (except sometimes middle 
pair) tipped with white; wings with secondaries tipped with white, and primaries 
with white patch at base; black spot in front of eye and black streak over ears; 
underparts white , chest and sides with grayish wavy bars or vcrmicxdalions. Young in 
juvenal plumage: Brownish gray above, paler and with wavy markings below; 
black replaced by dusky or rusty. 
Range. —Breeds in Hudsonian and locally in Canadian Zone from northwestern 
Alaska, northern Mackenzie, and northern Quebec south to southern Quebec, 
southern Ontario, and central Saskatchewan; winters in southeastern Alaska and 
southward to California, Arizona (rare), New Mexico, Texas, Kentucky, and 
Virginia. 
State Records. —During the winter the Northern Shrike comes far enough 
south to occur as a rare visitor in the northern, and occasionally in the southern, 
part of New Mexico. It was taken October 23, 1913, near Koehler Junction (Kalm- 
bach); and November 7,1902, at Tularosa, Otero County (Gant)—the most- southern 
record for the State. It has also been noted near Socorro, November 14, 1846 
(Abert); Chama, December 23, 1893 (Loring); Las Vegas, December 23, 1882 
(Batchelder); and February 7, 1902 (Atkins); [near Santa Fe, December 18, 1922 
(Jensen)]; Albuquerque, January 5, 1900 (Birtwell); and January 14, 1894 (Loring); 
Arroyo Seco, 8,000 feet, February 6, 1904 (Surber). Thus it has occurred from 4,500 
feet to 8,000 feet and from October 23 to February 7, or during the three coldest 
months.—W. W. Cooke. 
Food. —In cold weather, birds and mice 60 per cent; the rest of the year, mainly 
grasshoppers. 
General Habits. —From his attempts to imitate the notes of other 
small birds, the Northern Shrike is sometimes called Mockingbird; his 
gray, black, and white plumage, though very different from that of the 
Mocker, at sufficient distance perhaps helping to carry out the analogy. 
Of his imitations, Nuttall states, “I have lately heard one (November 
10th, 1833) employed in a low and soft warble resembling that of the 
Song Sparrow at the present season, and immediately after his note 
changed to that of a Catbird. Like that preeminent minstrel, the 
