LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. oll 
Collurio ludovicianus var. excubitoroides, WHEATON, in Coues’ Birds of N. W., 1874, 233; 
Food of Birds, ete., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1574, 565; Reprint, 1875, 5—Cougss, Birds 
of N. W., 1874, 103. —MerriaM, Ball. Nutt. Orn. Club, iii, 1878, 55.—LANGDON, Re- 
vised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist, .i, 1879, 174; Reprint, 8; Bull. Nutt. Orn. 
Club, iv, 1879, 120. « 
Lanius ludovicianus var. excubitorides, Cours, Birds of Col. Val., i, 1878, 563. 
Lanius excubitorides, SWAINSON aud RICHARDSON, Fn. Bor.-Am., ii, 1631, 116. 
Lanius excubitorocides, BAIRD, Rep. Gt. Salt Lake, 1852, 328. 
Collyrio excubitoroides, BAIRD, Birds N. Am, 1258, 527. 
Collurie ludovicianus var. excubitoroides, Cours, Key, 1872, 125. 
With the size and essential characters of head stripe of var. ludovicianus, and the un- 
der parts, as in that species, not or not obviously waved, but with the clear light ashy 
upper parts, and hoary whitish superciliary line, scapulars and rump of borealis. 
Habitat, middle province of North America, north to the Saskatchewan; east through 
Kansas, Jowa, Wisconsin, [linois, Ohic, New York, and Canada West. Rhode island. 
California. 
Rare in Southern and Middle Ohio, probably more common in North- 
ern Ohio. Summer resident from March to September. Breeds. The 
history of this bird in Ohio is somewhat obscure. It was first noted in 
my catalogue of 1860 (1861) on the authority of Dr. Kirtland and Mr. 
Winslow. In 1862 and after, I found Shrikes not rare during summer in 
the vicinity of Columbus, which I suppose to have been of this variety. 
In 1878, with a single exception, the female mentioned on page 309, all 
specimens examined by me were clearly referable to this variety, but after 
this date they seem to have become darker yearly, only here and there a 
male falling on the excubttorides_side of the line. Mr. Ridgway seems to 
have noticed the same change, for in ‘‘ Notes on Birds observed at Mount 
Carmel, Southern I1linois, in the spring of 1878,” (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, 
iii, 1878, 164), he says: “‘ Although in previous papers I have given the 
White-rumped form (excubitoroides) as the Shrike of this portion of the 
country, all the specimens obtained during my recent visit were per- 
fectly typical of the Southern race.” 
Have we here an admixture of races, or are the differences to be con- 
sidered. simply sexual or individual, or, to draw the line sharply, were 
the Loggerheads of 1874 the offspring of the White-rumped Shrikes of 
1873? | 
Mr. C. Hart Merriam, in Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, iii, 1858, 55, gives an 
excellent resume of this subject, which I give entire: 
‘Concerning the ‘Loggerhead Shrike,’ the case, though in some respects parallel with 
the above, is much more difficult of explanation, and has given rise to much confusion, 
owing to the complication arising from the close relationship existing between the South- 
ern and Western forms. Cones, in his ‘Key,’ states that ‘extreme examples of ludovi- 
