Species II. LANIUS CAROLTNENSIS* 



LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. 



[Plate XXII. Fig. 5.] 



This species has a considerable resemblance to the Great American 

 Shrike. It differs, however, from that bird in size, being a full inch 

 shorter, and in color, being much darker on the upper parts ; and in 

 having the frontlet black. It also inhabits the warmer parts of the 

 United States; while the Great American Shrike is chiefly confined to 

 the northern regions, and seldom extends to the south of Virginia. 



This species inhabits the rice plantations of Carolina and Georgia, 

 where it is protected for its usefulness in destroying mice. It sits, for 

 hours together, on the fence, beside the stacks of rice, watching like a 

 cat ; and as soon as it perceives a mouse, darts on it like a Ilawk. It 

 also feeds on crickets and grasshoppers. Its note, in March, resembled 

 the clear creaking of a sign board, in windy weather. It builds its 

 nest, as I was informed, generally in a detached bush, much like that of 

 the Mocking-bird ; but as the spring was not then sufficiently advanced, 

 I had no opportunity of seeing its eggs. It is generally known by the 

 name of the Loggerhead. 



This species is nine inches long and thirteen in extent ; the color 

 above is cinereous or dark ash ; scapulars, and line over the eye, 

 whitish ; wings black, with a small spot of white at the base of the 

 primaries, and tipped with white ; a stripe of black passes along the 

 front through each eye, half way down the side of the neck ; eye dark 

 hazel, sunk below the eyebrow ; tail cuneiform, the four middle feathers 

 wholly black, the four exterior ones on each side tipped more and more 

 with white to the outer one Avhich is nearly all white ; whole lower parts 

 white, and in some specimens, both of males and females, marked with 

 transverse lines of very pale brown ; bill and legs black. 



The female is considerably darker both above and below, but the 

 black does not reach so high on the front ; it is also rather less in size. 



* Lanius Ludovicianus, Linn., which name must be adopted. In IJuffon, pi. enl. 

 528, there is a figure of a young bird. — Synonymes : La Pie-griesche de la Loulsianc, 

 Briss. 2, p. 162. — Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 69, 



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