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268 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
Famiry LANIIDZ. 
Bill strong and compressed, the tip abruptly hooked; both mandibles distinctly 
notched, the upper with a distinct tooth behind, the lower with the point bent up; 
tarsi longer than the middle toe, strongly scutellate; primaries ten; first primary 
half the second, or shorter (occasionally wanting). 
The sub-families of Laniide belonging to the United States are as follows: — 
LANIIN&. — Bill very powerful, much compressed, and abruptly hooked, with a 
very prominent tooth behind the notch; wings considerably rounded; tail rather 
long and graduated; sides of the tarsi scutellate behind. 
ViIREONIN&. — Bill moderate, cylindrical, somewhat compressed; wings long, the 
first primary sometimes wanting; tail short and nearly even; sides of the tarsi behind 
not scutellate. 
Sub-Family Lanunz.— The Shrikes. 
COLLYRIO, Mornrine. 
Collyrio, Mornrine, Genera Avium (1752), 28. (Type Lanius excubitor, L.) 
Lanius, of AuTHORS. 
Feathers of forehead stiffened; base of bill, including nostrils, covered by bristly 
feathers directed forward; bill shorter than the head, much compressed, and very 
powerful; culmen decurved from base, the mandible abruptly bent down in a power- 
ful hook, what in acute lobe near the tip; tip of lower mandible bent upwards in a 
hook; the gonys very convex; rictus with long bristles; legs stout; the tarsi are 
rather short, longer than the middle toe; the lateral equal; the claws all very sharp 
and much curved; wings rounded; the first primary about half the second, which is 
equal to the sixth or seventh; tail longer than the wings, much graduated, the 
feathers broad. 
COLLYRIO BOREALIS. — Baird. 
The Great Northern Shrike; Butcher-bird. 
Lanius septentrionalis, Bonaparte. Syn. (1828), 72. Bon. List (1838). Nutt. 
Man., I. (1832) 258. . 
Lanius borealis, Audubon. Syn. (1889), 157. 
Lanius excubitor. Wils., I. (1808) 74. Aud. Orn. Biog., IT. (1834) 534. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Above light bluish-ash, obscurely soiled with reddish-brown; forehead, sides of 
the crown, scapulars, and upper tail coverts hoary-white; beneath white, the breast 
with fine transverse lines; wings and tail black. the former with a white patch at 
base of primaries and tips of small quills, the latter with the lateral feathers tipped 
with white; bill blackish-brown, considerably lighter at the base; black stripe from 
the bill through and behind the eye, but beneath the latter interrupted by a whitish 
crescent. Female and young with the gray soiled with brownish. 
