LANIOGERUS-LANIUS. 



2.5 



head not rostrated, the eyes of moderate size ; the 

 females winged, and the maxillary palpi but little 

 longer than the labial. The last-named insects are 

 commonly called soldiers and sailors bv children. 



LANIOGERUS. A genus of naked molluscs 

 established by De Blaiuville from a specimen existing 

 in the British Museum. 



LANISTA. A genus of molluscs so named by 

 De Monlfort, but united with the genus Anipullaria 

 by modern authors. 



LANIUS snrike, or butcher-bird. A genus of 

 insectivorous birds, belonging to Cuvier's dentirostral 

 order of the great family Passeres, and taking the 

 lead in that order as being the nearest to the birds of 

 prey ; and though, generally speaking, insectivorous 

 in their feeding, yet occasionally preying upon 

 smaller birds, which they kill by striking on the head 

 or pinching the neck, and afterwards they hew open 

 the skull and devour the brain of their victim. The 

 general characters are : the bill stout, very much 

 compressed, of mean length, straight in the basal part, 

 but curved toward the tip of the upper mandible, and 

 furnished with a decided tooth ; the base of the upper 

 mandible beset with stirt' hairs, which are pointed for- 

 ward; and the under mandible straight, and having a 

 notch answering to the tooth of the upper one. The 

 bill is thus decidedly a carnivorous bill, although it 

 differs from the bills of the diurnal birds of prey in not 

 being curved from the base. The nostrils are placed 

 laterally at the base of the bill, round in their form, 

 and half closed by an arched membrane. The feet 

 have four toes, entirely divided, or free to their bases, 

 three turned to the i'ront and one to the rear, the 

 middle toe being shorter than the tarsus. The first 

 quill of the wing is of moderate length, and the second 

 shorter than the third and fourth, which are the 

 longest. The wing is thus rounded in its termination, 

 and consequently much better adapted for ascent and 

 descent, or short and vigorous flight, than for conti- 

 nuous motion through the air. This agrees with the 

 habit, which is that of subsisting on the largest 

 insects, such as those beetles which in the perfect state 

 are so injurious to the leaves of trees, and of which 

 the larvae, as inhabiting the earth for more than one 

 year, are peculiarly destructive of the roots of the 

 greens, and sometimes in the absence of those birds, 

 which Providence has set over them to regulate their 

 numbers, completely destroy the grass on the mea- 

 dows, and the crops of corn in the fields. The shrikes 

 do not attack the larvae ; for they are not, in any 

 sense of the word, ground feeders : but they are ex- 

 ceedingly vigilant in attacking and destroying the 

 full grown insects ; and in doing this, they are per- 

 haps of more service to the cultivator than the rook, 

 which is the grand enemy of the larva?. The shrikes 

 are found about hedges and coppices, where they fly 

 low, and hawk upon the wing for their food ; and 

 some of them, at least, have the habit of sticking upon 

 the thorns the bodies of many of those insects which 

 they capture, probably for the purpose of returning 

 to eat them at their leisure. They seldom, if ever, 

 attack birds larger than themselves, or any birds, in- 

 deed, which are in vigorous health at the time ; but 

 they are very prone to make prey of sick birds, and 

 also of young ones. They have, in fact, the same 

 sanguinary disposition as the regular birds of prey, 

 only they are not so strong, or so powerfully armed. 

 They are exceedingly courageous, and pursue their 

 prey with most persevering industry. As is the case 



with predatory birds generally, the pairs evince great 

 attachment for each other, and the parent birds equal 

 attachment for the family. When the young are in 

 want of food, the old birds are more than usually 

 rapacious, and will attack young rabbits, which thev 

 despatch by striking on the posterior part of the skull 

 with their bills, and then carry them to the nest. They 

 prefer, however, the insect prey already .alluded to; 

 and the places which they frequent are marked by the 

 exuviae of the larger insects stuck upon the thorns of 

 the hedges. Their flight is rapid, but very irregular, 

 consisting of a succession of leaps. They live in 

 families ; and their cries to one another are shrill and 

 piercing, though many of them have softer notes when 

 they are flying singly in pursuit of their prey. Their 

 nests are generally made in trees, the external fabric 

 being neatly constructed of withered stems and fibres, 

 and the interior lined with wool and other soft mat- 

 ters. There are a great many species enumerated 

 by writers on ornithology ; but the line of distinction 

 between them and the thrush family, which they re- 

 semble in many respects, though they differ from 

 them in others, is not very clearly drawn. We must 

 content ourselves with noticing a few of the more 

 remarkable. 



GREAT ASH-COLOURED SHRIKE (L. c.vcnbitor}. 

 This bird, from the number of names which it has ac- 

 quired, must have drawn very considerable attention. 

 It is called the grey shrike, the great butcher bird, the 

 murdering bird, the French pie, and a number of 

 other names ; while the Americans, in some places, 

 call it the nine killer, and in others white whisky 

 John ; the first name having allusion to the number 

 of prey that it seizes, and fastens on the hedges 

 before it eats any ; and the second to the rapid and 

 whisking nature of its flight. This species is ash and 

 grey on the upper part, white on the under ; the 

 tail, except the side feathers, which are white, is of a 

 black colour, as is also the eye streak. The colours 

 are, however, subject to very considerable variations ; 

 for some are found almost entirely white, and others 

 are of all shades between the common ash and grey, 

 and a white colour. The female, which is of the 

 same size with the male, retains one of the external 

 characters of the birds of prey, at least in part ; for 

 the dull white on the under part is, in that sex, mark- 

 ed with semi-circular lines of a dusky colour, not 

 unlike the markings on the under part of some of the 

 hawks. The bill is of a black colour, very stron?, 

 considerably hooked at the tip, and having the notch 

 or tooth very prominent. The gape, and \>ver the 

 nostrils, is beset with stiff bristles ; but there is not 

 even a rudiment of that cere which is characteristic of 

 the true predatory birds. The tail is even at the end, 

 and consists of twelve feathers. The legs and feet 

 are black ; and the irides are of a dusky colour. The 

 length, both of the male and female, is about ten 

 inches ; and the extent of the wings is about fourteen. 



The singular habit which this species of shrike, 

 more than any of the others, has of sticking the 

 remains of its prey, and sometimes the entire prey, 

 upon the hedges, has given rise to curious conjectures, 

 the most probable of which is, that they do so to 

 attract other prey ; for when the trophies of its for- 

 mer doing are thus exhibited upon the hedge, the 

 shrike itself may often be observed beating about un- 

 til some smaller bird comes to peck at the trophy ; 

 and then the shrike drops down, bears it to the 

 ground, instantly dislocates its neck by the gripe of 



