^ 



'^ffU^ifit^ — (/■'j 



SHRlIEKER— SHRIKE 843 



though smaller maxillary,' flap, and marked by a very peculiar 



style of coloration, is the! " Blue Duck " of New Zealand, Hymeno- f-f. Cr^^c^ 



Ixmus malacorhynclms, from its lobated hallux generally placed among 



V / 



HvMENOLyEMUs. (After BuUer.) 



the Nyroc'mx or FidiguUna? (Pochard), but having a tracheal con- 

 formation very similar to that of the Anatinx and of Somateria.^ 



SHRIEKEE, an old name for the GODWIT. 



SHRIKE, a bird's name so given, on the aiithority of Sir 

 Francis Lovell, by Turner (1544, suh wcc Molliceps), who said he 

 could not find any one else who so called it, and had seen the bird 

 but twice in England, though in Germany often. There can be little 

 doubt that Turner's informant was mistaken, and that the name, 

 signifying a bird that screeches or shrieks (A.-S. Scric, old Norsk 

 Skrikja, mod. Scand. Skrihi — a Jay) probabl}'^ applied originally to 

 the Mistletoe-THRUSH, known to Charleton in 1668 {Onomast. p. 83) 

 as SHREITCH, and to AVillughby as SHRITE— a name it still bears 

 in some parts of England, to say nothing of cognate forms such as 

 Screech-bird and Shirl. However, the word Shrike ^ was caught 

 up by succeeding writers ; and, though hardly used except in books 

 — for Butcher-bird (p. 66) is its popular synonym — it not only 

 retains a position in literary English, but has been largely extended 

 so as to apply in general to all bii'ds of the Family Laniidx and others 

 besides. The name Lanms, in this sense, originated with Gesner ^ 

 (1555), who thought that the birds to which he gave it had not 



^ As this page is passing through the press I am indebted to Capt. Hutton 

 for a specimen which enables me to make the above remark. G. R. Gray shewed 

 {Ann. Nat. Hist. xi. pp. 369-371) that it lias no affinity to Malacorhynchus, to 

 which Wagler {Ish, 1832, p. 1235) referred it. 



2 Few birds enjoy such a wealth of local names as the Shrikes. M. Rolland 

 {Faunc Pop. France, ii. pp. 146-151) gives irpwards of ninety applied to them in 

 France and Savoy ; but not one of these lias any affinity to our word " Slirike." 



"* He does not seem to have known that Butcher-bird was an Englisli name ; 

 and indeed it may have been subsequently invented (c/. Flu.sher). 



