_Lanius ludovicianus_, LINN. Syst. Nat. 1766, 134 (based on _Lanius
ludovicianus_, BRISSON, II, 162, tab. xv, fig. 2).—AUD. Orn. Biog.
I, 1831, 300, pl. xxxvii.—IB. Birds Am. IV, pl. ccxxxvii.—CASSIN,
Pr. A. N. Sc. 1857, 213. _Collyrio ludovicianus_, BAIRD, Birds N.
Am. 1858, 325. _Collurio ludov._ BAIRD, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 443.
_Lanius ardosiaceus_, VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 81, pl.
li. _Lanius carolinensis_, WILS. Am. Orn. III, 1811, 57, pl. xxii,
fig. 5.
HAB. South Atlantic (and Gulf?) States.
The young bird is quite different from the adult, differing as does
that of _excubitoroides_, but the colors are all darker than in the
corresponding age of that species.
HABITS. This species, if we regard it as distinct from the
_excubitoroides_, has apparently a very restricted distribution, being
confined to the South Atlantic and Gulf States. I am not aware that it
has been found farther north than North Carolina. It is not common,
according to Audubon, either in Louisiana or Mississippi, and probably
only occurs there in the winter. I have had its eggs from South
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Dresser speaks of this Shrike as
common in Texas in summer, and Dr. Woodhouse states that he found it
very abundant in Texas and the Indian Territory. These observations
may probably apply to the kindred race, _excubitoroides_, and not to
this form.
It is said to be exclusively a bird of the lowlands, and never to be
met with in the mountainous parts, even of its restricted habitat.
Dr. Coues found this species very common in the neighborhood of
Columbia, S. C., frequenting the wooded streets and waste fields of
that city. On one occasion he observed a Loggerhead busily foraging
for insects in the grounds of the Capitol. From the top of a tall bush
it would occasionally sally out, capture a large grasshopper, and
carry it to a tree near by, full of sharp twigs. It would then proceed
to impale the insect on one of these points, remain awhile watching
the result of its performance, and then resume its post on the bush,
watching for more grasshoppers, some of which, one by one, it caught
and impaled in like manner, others it ate on the spot.
This curious habit of impaling insects, more or less common to the
entire family of Shrikes, seems to admit of no satisfactory
explanation. In this case the bird thus secured them when apparently
hungry, eating some and impaling others. Yet, so far as I know, it
never makes any use of those it thus impales.
Mr. Audubon states that in South Carolina it is quite common along the
fences and hedges about the rice plantations at all seasons, and that
it renders good service to the planters in the destruction of
field-mice, as well as of many of the larger insects. He speaks of its
song as consisting only of shrill, clear, creaking, prolonged notes,
resembling the grating of a rusty hinge. His account differs, in many
respects, from the more minute and exact descriptions of Rev. Dr.
Bachman. In pursuing its prey, he states that it invariably strikes it
with its bill before seizing it with its claws.
In reference to its song, Dr. Bachman states that it has other notes
besides the grating sound mentioned by Audubon. During the
breeding-season, and nearly all the summer, the male bird posts itself
at the top of some tree and makes an effort at a song, which he
compares to the first attempts of a young Brown Thrush. This is a
labored effort, and at times the notes are not unpleasing, but very
irregular.
Dr. Bachman also claims that the male evinces marked evidences of
attachment to his mate, carrying to her, every now and then, a
grasshopper or a cricket, and driving away hawk or crow as they
approach the nest.
He also states that he has usually found the nest on the outer limbs
of trees, often from fifteen to thirty feet from the ground, and only
once on a bush so low as ten feet from the ground. He has occasionally
seen these birds feeding on mice, and also on birds that had been
apparently wounded by the sportsman. It will sometimes catch young
birds and devour them, but its food consists chiefly of grasshoppers,
crickets, coleopterous and other insects, including butterflies and
moths, which it will pursue and capture on the wing. Dr. Bachman has
observed its habit of pinning insects on thorns. In one instance he
saw it occupy itself for hours in sticking up, in this way, small
fishes thrown on the shore, but he has never known them to devour
anything thus impaled.
This Shrike is partially migratory in South Carolina, as a few may be
found all winter, but only one tenth of those seen in summer. It is
also very fond of the little changeable green lizard, which it pursues
with great skill and activity, but not always with success.
It is said also to breed twice in a season. Dr. Bachman describes
their eggs as white, and Mr. Audubon speaks of them as greenish-white.
Neither make any reference to their spots.
All the nests that I have ever seen of this species, in the simplicity
of their structure and in their lack of elaboration, are in remarkable
contrast with the nests of both the _borealis_ and the _excubitoroides_.
They are flat, shallow structures, with a height of about two inches
and a diameter of five. They are made externally of long soft strips
of the inner bark of the basswood, strengthened on the sides with a
few dry twigs, stems, and roots. Within, it is lined with fine grasses
and stems of herbaceous plants.
The eggs, often six in number, are in length from 1.02 to 1.08 inches,
and from .72 to .78 of an inch in breadth; their ground-color is a
yellowish or clayey-white, blotched and marbled with dashes, more or
less confluent, of obscure purple, light brown, and a purplish-gray.
The spots are usually larger and more scattered than in the eggs of
_C. borealis_, and the ground-color is a yellowish and not a bluish
white, as in the eggs of _C. excubitoroides_.
Collurio ludovicianus, var. robustus, BAIRD.