150 GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE. 



curving lines of light brown; the wings are black, tipt with 

 white, with a single spot of white on the primaries, just below 

 their coverts; the scapulars, or long downy feathers that fall 

 over the upper part of the wing, are pure white; the rump and 

 tail-coverts a very fine gray or light ash; the tail is cuneiform, 

 consisting of twelve feathers, the two middle ones wholly black, 

 the others tipt more and more with white to the exterior ones, 

 which are nearly all white; the legs, feet and claws, are black; 

 the beak straight, thick, of a light blue colour; the upper man- 

 dible furnished with a sharp process, bending down greatly at 

 the point, where it is black, and beset at the base with a number 

 of long black hairs or bristles; the nostrils are also thickly covered 

 with recumbent hairs; the iris of the eye is a light hazel, pupil 

 black. The figure in the plate will give a perfect idea of the 

 bird. The female is easily distinguished by being ferruginous 

 on the back and head; and having the band of black extending 

 only behind the eye, and of a dirty brown or burnt colour, the 

 under parts are also something rufous, and the curving lines 

 more strongly marked; she is rather less than the male, which 

 is different from birds of prey in general, the females of which 

 are usually the larger of the two. 



In the Arctic Zoology we are told that this species is fre- 

 quent in Russia, but does not extend to Siberia; yet one was ta- 

 ken within Behring's straits, on the Asiatic side, in lat. 66; 

 and the species probably extends over the whole continent of 

 North America, from the Western ocean. Mr. Bell, while on 

 his travels through Russia, had one of these birds given him, 

 which he kept in a room, having fixed up a sharpened stick for 

 him in the wall; and on turning small birds loose in the room, 

 the Butcher-bird instantly caught them by the throat in such a 

 manner as soon to sufjpcate them; and then stuck them on the 

 stick, pulling them on with bill and claws; and so served as 

 many as were turned loose, one after another, on the same stick.* 



* Edwards, v. vu, p. 231. 



