SHRIKES: WHITE-RUMPED SHRIKE 
599 
buriana and Holbrookia maculata) which usually are about in some 
numbers during the warmer hours of an average winter day. These 
the Shrike impales on thorns, etc., according to its usual custom with 
small birds and grasshoppers. But the month of December, 1909, 
was unusually cold and the lizards did not appear. When riding over 
the mesa, in early January, I both saw and heard a Shrike, perched on 
a desert willow ( Chilopsis ), feeding on some dry hard substance. 
Examination showed that the food was the extremely dry bodies of 
some lizards that had all the appearance of having been placed there 
several weeks before. The ground about was strewn with fragments 
and there were still many on the thorn-like branches of the Chilopsis. 
It was the noise the bird made in his attempt to break up this material 
that first attracted my attention. It is well to observe that in our dry 
atmosphere such an impaled animal does not decay as it would in a 
more humid climate but cures perfectly. In fact, the native people 
regularly dry pieces of meat for future use by fastening it to the 
clothesline, where it is exposed to the almost tropical sun and desert 
wind” (1910, p. 459). 
Additional Literature.—Judd, S. D., Biol. Surv., U. S. Dept. Agr., Bull. 9, 
1898.— Miller, O. T., Upon the Tree-Tops, 50-60, 1897. 
VIREOS: Family Vireonidae 
Subfamily Vireoninae 
The small Vireos or Greenlets are peculiar to America. Their 
bill is a miniature of that of the Shrike, being distinctly toothed and 
notched at tip; the nostrils are exposed, overhung with a scale, the 
rictal bristles conspicuous, the toes extensively coherent at base, 
claws much curved, and the wing at least as long as the tail, of ten 
primaries. They are for the most part arboreal, though some prefer 
undergrowth, their dull, greenish coloration making them inconspicuous. 
Their movements are slow as they hunt carefully over the under¬ 
surfaces of leaves for small caterpillars and other insects. Their nests 
are cup-shaped, hung from forked twigs. 
Comparisons. —Of the six Vireos found in New Mexico, one, the Western War - 
bling , has a distinctive long, white eye-streak; two, the Cassin and the Plumbeous, 
have a broad white orbital ring and loral streak which contrast strikingly with the 
gray of the head, while the back is olive-green in the Cassin and gray in the Plumbe¬ 
ous. Of the three remaining Vireos, the Gray can be known by the plain dull gray 
of the upperparts and sides of head, and only one indistinct wing bar; the Stephens 
by the olive-gray of its upperparts and its two wing bars; the Arizona Least by its 
brownish gray upperparts. 
If, however, there is any doubt about the identification of these smaller vireos, 
specimens should be sent to a museum or to the Biological Survey for comparison 
with series of skins. 
Reference.—Chapin, E. A., U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. 1355, 1925 (food habits). 
