THE AMERICAN SPECIES OF LANIUS 543 



Ornitholooicus, Latham proceeds to mix up the true L. ludovici- 

 anus with a third species, namely, the "Black-crowned Shrike" 

 of Pennant {=L. americanns Gm.), which he brings in here 

 probably because Pennant merely surmised that his own 

 Black-crowned Shrike "seems to be" Brisson's L. ludoviciamis. 

 Finally, all these mistakes are repeated by Latham in his general 

 History, with a climax of error in the surmise that his L. ludo- 

 vicianus (now become a thoroughly composite species, having 

 no existence in nature) might be a variety of his L. nengefa! — 

 which latter is itself an equally composite bird. This is, 

 indeed, " confusion worse confounded ". 



Thus, as Swainson well remarks (FBA. iL 119), "let us 

 remember that we first began to lose sight of the true L. Ludo- 

 mcianus by an unlucky error in the Bystema Naturw [where 

 Linnaeus gave a faulty description ] : that it became more 

 obscure in Gmelin's compilation ; and that it was finally lost 

 in the Index Oniithologicus, the Ludoviciamis of which work 

 and of the General History is an imaginary bird [i. e. a com- 

 posite species]." 



It may be further observed, that there is in Gmelin another 

 "Lanius ludovicianus" {Lanius tyrannus, 5, ludovicianus), which 

 is an entirely different bird, namely, the Kingbird, Tyrannus 

 carolinensis. 



3. Lanius canadensis, L. Slf. i. 134, n. 4. {Pie-griescJie de 

 Canada, Lanius canadensis, Briss. Orn. ii. 171, pi. 18, f. 3. — Pie- 

 gridcJie huppee de Canada, Buff. PL Enlum. 479, f. 2. — Four- 

 millier huppe, Buff. Hist. Nat. iv. 476. — Crested Shrilce, Lath. 

 Syn. i. 182, n. 35; Penn. AZ. 239, n. 129. — Lanius cana- 

 densis, Gm. SN. 298 (= Linn.); Lath. IO. ii. 72 (=Linn.).— 

 Lanius atricapilhis, Gm. SN. 303. — Turdus cirrhatus, Gm. SN. 

 826. — Lanius pileatus. Lath. IO. i. 76. — Tyrannus atricapillus, 

 V. OAS. 78, pi. 48.— T. canadensis, V. OAS. 79, pi. 49.) This 

 is neither a Shrike nor a North American bird, being a species 

 of Thamnophilus of Cayenne, &c., originally described by 

 Brisson from " Canada", probably by mistake for Cayenne. 



4. Lanius americanus, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. 1788, 308, n. 48. 

 This is based upon the "Black-crowned Shrike" of Pennant, 

 AZ. ii. 1785, 238, n. 128, said to inhabit "North America". 

 Though Pennant says it "seems to be" the same as Bris- 

 son, ii. 162 {=L. ludoviciainis) and Latham, Synopsis, i. 162 

 ( = Louisiane Shrike), his bird is clearly not ?k Lanius; nor is it 

 a North American bird at all. Latham reproduces a "Lauius 



