PASSERINE. 253 



a small tooth on its sides, are so courageous and cruel, that many- 

 naturalists have thereby been induced to place them among the birds 

 of prey. In fact, they pursue small birds, and successfully defend 

 themselves against the larger ones, even attacking the latter when it 

 is necessary to remove them from their nests.(l) 



There are four or five species of this subdivision in France. 



Lanius excubitor, L.; Enl. 445; Naum. 49. As large as a 



thrush; ash coloured above; white beneath; wings, tail, and a 



band around the eye, black; some white on the scapulars, the 



base of the wing-quills, and on the external edge of the lateral 



<]uills of the tail. It remains in France the whole year. 



In the south of Europe there is a race, or perhaps a species of a 



deeper colour, with a vinous tint underneath Lan. meridionalis, 



Temm. There are others in America still more closely allied to 



it. (2) 



Lan. excubiior minor, Gm.; Enl. 32, 1; Lan. minor^ Naum. 50. 

 (The Little Shrike.) Somewhat smaller than the Common 

 Shrike, the beak shorter and thicker, wings and tail similar; 

 cinereous above; reddish on the belly; the black bands of the 

 eyes united, on the forehead, in a large bandeau. A very dis^ 

 tinct species. 



Lan. coUurio-rnfus, and La7i. pomeraniis, Gm.; Enl. 9, 2; 

 Lan. rutilus, Lath.; Lan. ruficollis, Sh.; Lan. riffus, Naum. 

 51. (The Red Shrike.) The bandeau, wings and tail of the 

 preceding; not quite so large; top of the head and neck, a 

 vivid red; back black; the scapulars, belly and rump, white. 



Lan. colhirio, Gm. ; Enl. 31; Naum. 52. (The Butcher Bird.) 

 Still smaller; top of the head and rump ash coloured; back and 

 wings fawn coloured; whitish above; a black band over the 

 eye; wing-quills black edged with fawn colour, those of the tail 

 black, the lateral ones white at base. It destroys small Birds, 

 young Frogs and great numbers of Insects, which it sticks upon 

 the thorns of bushes, in order to devour them at leisure, or to 

 find them again when wanted. 

 The last three species leave France during the winter. 

 Other countries have several of these Shrikes with arcuated beaks, 



(1) It is from this first subdivision that M. Vieillot has made his genus Lanius, 

 Gal. pi. cxxxv. 



(2) Lan. carolinensis, Wils., Ill, xxii, 5, and his Lan. excubitor, I, v. 1, which he 

 considers as the same. M. Ch. Bonaparte makes two species of them, and refers 

 them to the Lan. ludovicianus, a^nd Lan. septentrionalis of Gm.; or to the Lan. 

 ardesiacus and borealis of Vieillot, Am. 51 and 50; we must confess, however, that 

 there is but little resemblance between these different figures. 



