THE NORTHERN SHRIKE. 57 



sota. Like others of its order, it is particularly a seed and 

 grain-eating bird. 



The Partridge and the Quail belong to the Gallinaceous 

 or Poultry order of birds, so named because it includes our 

 common domestic fowl. They are for the most part a 

 strongly marked order. The vaulted upper mandible, with 

 its nostrils at the base and "covered by a cartilaginous 

 scale;" the short, rounded wings; the breast-bone, with two 

 such deep emarginations on each side, and the keel so cut 

 away in front as to reduce it to a mere open frame; the 

 heavy flight; the simplicity of the lower larynx; the muscular 

 gizzard and large crop are all points of differentiation 

 which cannot easily be mistaken. They incubate on the 

 ground, having a simple nest and a large number of eggs. 



THE NORTHERN SHRIKE. 



A little to my right is a large buttonwood tree, making a 

 marked and beautiful contrast with the rest of the landscape, 

 for in this tree there is no brown whatever, the trunk and 

 main limbs shaling off almost to a pure white, and the spray 

 being nearly black. 



To an ornithologist a tree is never complete without a 

 bird. So I strain my eyes to detect something of the kind 

 in the thick branches, and am not disappointed. In the 

 thickest part of the top, sitting almost motionless, is a 

 Northern Shrike or Butcher Bird (Lanius borealis). Not 

 far from the size of a Robin, 9-10 inches long, but with a 

 much larger head and thicker neck, and a longer tail, its 

 color is an olivaceous drab, with black patches from the 

 base of the bill back across the eyes and down the sides of 

 the neck; wings and tail black with white markings; under- 

 neath white, with cross-pencilings of black. But this color- 

 ation varies greatly in different individuals, the white some- 



