_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).
[Illustration: _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.
Mr. Audubon further states that in severe winters he has met with it
as far south as Natchez on the Mississippi. It is also not uncommon in
Kentucky during the same season, but he never met with it near the
seaboard.
Mr. Kennicott’s memoranda in reference to this species are to the
effect that he observed one individual at Fort Simpson, September 23,
and again October 22, but on no other occasion. Both of these
specimens, when first observed, were singing. Their notes, he states,
were low and irregular, but were varied and quite musical. Captain
Blakiston found these birds winter residents on the Saskatchewan.
In the fall and winter of 1871, a pair of these birds was attracted to
the Common, in Boston, by the large number of half-domesticated
European Sparrows. For a while they made daily inroads upon these
favorites, killing one or more for several days in succession. They
appeared to keep themselves secreted most of the time, showing
themselves each day early in the forenoon, and pouncing upon their
victims, unaware of their near presence, in the manner of a Hawk,
aiming always at the heads, which were torn off and devoured;
generally the headless remains were left uneaten. In one instance
where a Sparrow had been struck on the back, an ugly wound was made,
the bird escaped alive, and was soon after seen, in the middle of
Tremont Street, apparently not seriously injured. These Shrikes were
so bold and destructive that pains had to be taken to watch for and
shoot them. Three were killed, on different days, and each with a dead
Sparrow in its claws, upon which it was feasting when shot.
Both Mr. Audubon and Mr. Nuttall refer to this Shrike’s imitating the
cries of other birds, apparently to decoy them within its reach. The
former has heard it utter cries like those of the Sparrow screaming in
the claws of a Hawk, to induce them to come out of their coverts and
rescue their suffering fellows, and has seen them dart suddenly into a
thicket in pursuit of one, from which would soon issue the real cries
of the bird it had seized. Nuttall states that in some parts of New
England this Shrike is called a Mocking-Bird, on account of its
imitations of the notes of smaller birds. Its more usual note
resembles the discordant creaking of a signboard hinge. He also states
that it has been known to mimic the quacking of ducks, so that these
would answer to it as to a decoy. He heard one of these birds, as late
as November 10, uttering a low and soft warble, resembling that of the
Song Sparrow, immediately after changing it to the notes of the
Catbird.
When in pursuit of small birds, it will dart down with closed wings,
in the manner of a Hawk, and seldom fails to obtain the object of its
pursuit, following it with rapidity and pertinacity through the
thickets in which it seeks shelter. When it seizes its prey, it
alights on its back, and tears open its head.
Its bold audacity and perseverance are quite remarkable, and are often
displayed, in the fall, in the manner in which it will enter an
apartment through an open window and attack a Canary, even in the
presence of members of the family. It rarely fails, if it gains access
to the cage, to destroy its inmate before the latter can be rescued by
the intervention of those present, and only by great promptness in
sheltering the cage. In one instance the writer was sitting at a
closed window reading, with a Canary hanging above him. Suddenly there
was a severe blow struck at the pane of glass near the cage, and the
frightened Canary uttered cries of alarm and fell to the bottom of its
cage. The cause was soon explained. A Shrike had dashed upon the bird,
unconscious of the intervening glass, and was stretched upon the snow
under the window, stunned by the blow. He revived when taken up, and
lived several days, was sullen, but tame, and utterly devoid of fear.
He refused raw meat, but eagerly tore in pieces and devoured small
birds when given to him. His tameness and indifference to our presence
may have been occasioned by stupor arising from his injury. In another
case a Shrike made a similar attack, but escaped unharmed, and though
he remained about the house several days, was too wary to allow
himself to be decoyed within gunshot.
A nest of the Northern Shrike, containing six eggs, was obtained by R.
R. McFarlane, at Anderson River Fort, June 11, 1863. This is in many
respects in striking contrast with the nests of its kindred species of
the Southern States, far exceeding them in its relative size, in
elaborate finish and warmth. It is altogether a remarkable example of
what are known as felted nests, where various materials are most
elaborately worked together into a homogeneous and symmetrical whole.
It is seven inches in diameter and three and a half in height. The
cavity is proportionately large and deep, having a diameter of four
and a half inches, and a depth of two. Except the base, which is
composed of a few twigs and stalks of coarser plants, the nest is made
entirely of warm and soft materials, most elaborately interworked
together. These materials are feathers from various birds, fine down
of the Eider and other ducks, fine mosses and lichens, slender stems,
grasses, etc., and are skilfully and artistically wrought into a
beautiful and symmetrical nest, strengthened by the interposition of a
few slender twigs and stems without affecting the general felt-like
character of the whole. The egg measures 1.10 inches by .80, and is of
a light greenish ground, marbled and streaked with blotches of
obscure-purple, clay-color, and rufous-brown.
Sir John Richardson found this a by no means uncommon bird in the
woody districts, at least as far as the sixteenth parallel. On account
of its resemblance to the Canada Jay, the Indians called it the “White
Whiskey-John.” It remains all winter in the fur regions, but is much
more numerous in summer. He states that the nest is built in the fork
of a tree, of dry grass and lichens neatly intertwined, and lined with
feathers.
Collurio ludovicianus, BAIRD.