234 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



beetles, etc.), spiders, small frogs, and reptiles, and frequently small 

 birds and mammals, such as mice and shrews. Their favorite position, 

 when resting-, is the summit of an isolated small tree or stake, a tele- 

 graph M ire, or some other prominent object, from which they can com- 

 mand a wide view in all directions. When flying from one resting- 

 place to another the shrike sweeps downward from its perch and then 

 pursues an undulating flight a few feet above the surface of the 

 ground. The ordinar}^ notes of the true shrikes are harsh, often grat- 

 ing, but most of the species are capable of producing a variety of 

 sounds, in some closely approximating a song; some, indeed, are pos- 

 sessed of considerable musical ability, which some persons, doubtless 

 without reason, suppose to be practiced for the purpose of enticing 

 small birds within their reach. Their bulky nests are placed in 

 thickly branched trees, usualh^ among thorny twigs or among inter- 

 twining A^nes, and are usually lined with soft feathers; the eggs, four 

 to seven in number, are spotted or freckled with olive-brown on a 

 whitish, buffy. or pale greenish g-round color. 



Genus LANIUS Linnasus. 



Lanius Linn^us, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, i, 1758, 93. (Type, by elimination, L. 



excubitor Linnseus. ) 

 Collurio Brisson, Orn., ii, 1760, 151. (Type, Lanius excubitor Linnreus. ) 

 Mtneoctonus HoiE, Isis, 1826, 973. (Type, Lanius exculntor Linnpeus. ) 

 Enneoctornis (emendation) Layaed, Birds South Africa, 1867, 158. 

 Phoneusls^xvp, Entw. Europ. Thierw., 1829, 33. (Type, Lanms rufns Retzius. ) 

 Fiscus Bonaparte, Compt. Rend., xxxviii, 1854, 386. (Type, Lanius collaris 



Linnaeus. ) 

 Leucometopon Bonaparte, Compt. Rend., xxxviii, 1854, 386. (Type, Lanius 



nubicus Lichtenstein. ) 

 O^omeZa Bonaparte, Compt. Rend., xxxviii, 1854, 386. (Type, Lanius cristaius 



Linnaeus. ) 

 Cephaloplioneus Fitzinger, Sitz. K. Akad. Wien, xlvi, 1864, 205. (Type, Lanius 



bucephalus Temminck and Schlegel. ) 



The characters of the genus Zemins are the same as those given for 

 the family Laniidse., on pages 232, 233, except that the tenth primary 

 is always well developed, though never more than half as long as the 

 ninth, the feathers of the pileum and neck are never lanceolate, the 

 plumage never spotted (though barred or vermiculated in young birds), 

 and the tail neither even nor excessivel}^ graduated. The American 

 species, together with their nearest Old World allies, agree in the 

 following characters of coloration: 



Adults. — Plain gray above, the sides of the head, wings, and tail 

 black; the wings with a white patch at base of primaries and tail with 

 much white on exterior rectrices; lower parts whitish. 



Young. — Essentially similar to adults, but colors less strongly con- 

 trasted, the gray and white more or less tinged with brownish, and 



