GREAT NORTHERN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER-BIRD.
Lanius borealis, Viellot, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 90, pl. 1.—Sw.—Aud. Syn.—Ib. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 130, pl. ccxxxvi.—Cassin.—Max. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 190 (Upper Missouri).—Jones, Nat. Bermuda, 1857, 51 (Bermuda).—Dresser & Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1870, 590. Collyrio borealis, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 324.—Cooper & Suckley, P. R. Rep. XII, II, 1860, 188 (Washington Territory).—Dall & Bannister, 280 (Alaska).—Samuels, Birds N. Eng. 268. Collurio borealis, Baird, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 440. Lanius excubitor, Forster, Phil. Trans. LXII, 1772, 382 (not of Linnæus).—Wilson, I, 1808, 74, pl. v, fig. 1. Lanius septentrionalis, Bon. Syn. 1828, 72 (not of Gmelin, which cannot be identified as an American species).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 137.—Cassin, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1857, 213.—Murray, ed. New Phil. Jour. XI, 1859, 223 (H. B. T.).
Hab. Whole of America north of United States; in winter south to Washington, St. Louis, Prescott (Arizona), and North California; Bermuda (winter, Jones).
Collyrio excubitoroides.
The description of this and the succeeding species will be found on [page 413]. In winter, the colors, especially of the immature birds, are quite different from those described. The plumage of the adult, in winter, differs from that of spring as follows: the lores and nasal tufts are whitish, instead of pure, sharply defined black, with, however, some of the hair-like fibres blackish. The ash above is a little less clear, the white beneath less pure; the under mandible whitish at the base. An immature bird, in winter, has the ash above overlaid by a wash of reddish-brown, producing a prevailing uniform light-brown tint; the black on side of head is reduced to an obsolete patch on the ear-coverts. The dull white beneath is everywhere—sometimes even on the lower tail-coverts—covered with numerous bars of dusky, more sharply defined, and darker than in the adult.
Eastern specimens appear to have as much white on the rump as Western ones.
Habits. In the breeding-season this species of Shrike is found in all North America north of the United States, and is said to breed also within our territory, in mountainous districts. Such, at least, is the statement of Mr. Audubon, and Wilson leaves us to infer the same thing by giving a minute description of its nest and eggs. But Audubon may have confounded this species with the excubitoroides, and Wilson, apparently believing our species and the excubitor of Europe to be identical, may have had the
nest and eggs of the European bird in view in his description. We know of a single recent instance in which this bird has bred within the limits of the United States, though it may breed in Northern and Eastern Maine. Mr. Boardman spoke of it as common only in winter, near Calais, but he has since met with its nest in New Brunswick, within twelve miles of St. Stephen. It was supposed by his informant to be the nest of the Canada Jay, but proved, on shooting the parent, to be that of the Northern Shrike. When found, it contained four eggs, but these had hatched out before it was secured. The nest was found on the last of April, and was built in a low spruce-tree. Mr. Boardman has since seen these birds in his neighborhood during the summer. Professor Verrill thinks it is only common in the autumn and winter in Western Maine. In Western Massachusetts, Mr. Allen cites it as not very common, but a regular winter visitant, from the last of October to the middle of April.
Mr. Ridgway met with it frequently in the neighborhood of Carson City during the winter, among the willows bordering the streams that flow from the mountains. Dr. Coues also found it as far south as Arizona, though Mr. Dresser did not meet with any in Texas, nor did Dr. Woodhouse notice any in his expedition to the Zuñi. Captain Feilner found this species common, in the colder months, in the northeastern portions of California, and Dr. Cooper gives it as abundant at the Columbia River in October.