WAGTAILS. LANIADJi, OR SHRIKES. 445 



their tail, which they are continually shaking up and clown, is 

 long and narrow. Their flight is rapid and undulatory, and 

 buoyant and graceful in the highest degree. Their tarsi are long, 

 and they walk with great celerity ; the hind toe is armed with a 

 long claw. They frequent the margins of rivers and lakes, 

 inundated fields, &c. ; and they feed on insects and small seeds. 

 They nestle on the ground, among the herbage or in stony 

 places. 



401. It is in the family LANIAD^E, or Shrikes, that we find 

 the largest and most rapacious birds of the Dentirostral tribe ; 

 and it is here, too, that we find the dentation of the bill most 

 distinct, as shown in Fig. 224. In their general habits, many 

 of the Laniadae resemble the Raptorial Birds ; for they sit 

 motionless upon their perch, watching for their prey (which con- 

 sists of small birds, quadrupeds, and reptiles, and the larger 

 insects), and then suddenly dart upon it. Many of them have 

 the curious habit of impaling the animals they have caught upon 

 a large thorn ; and then pulling them to pieces, and devouring 

 them at their leisure. They are said to lie in wait near the 

 insects which have been thus secured ; and to dart out upon any 

 Birds that may be attracted by them. Their rapacity causes 

 them to be much dreaded by the smaller birds of their own 

 tribe ; many of which exhibit as much alarm at their presence 

 as they would at that of a Hawk. They exhibit great courage 

 in defending themselves and their nests from more powerful 

 enemies ; and the parents show great attachment to each other 

 and to their young. It is said that when rendered more than 

 'usually rapacious by the wants of their hungry offspring, they 

 will even attack young rabbits, which they destroy by striking 

 the posterior part of the skull with their bills. Like the Rap- 

 tores, they build their nests at a considerable height from the 

 ground ; but they show much more art in their construction. 

 This group is distributed over both the Old and the New World; 

 but the species inhabiting temperate regions are usually migra- 

 tory. Three are natives of Britain. 



402. The birds of the family TURDID^E, or Thrushes, have 



