( 155 ) 



FAMILY LANIRiE, 



SHRIKES. 

 GENUS LANIUS— LINN. 



SHRIKE. 



[Bill of moderate length, robust, compressed, upper mandible rounded above, 

 hooked at tip ; head large, upper part broad ; neck short ; body full ; tail long, 

 much rounded Tarsi rather short; feet stout, toes rather small, hind toe 

 strong ; claws large, arched, and sharp.] 



LANIUS BOREALIS— VIEILL. 

 GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE. 



Great American Shrike or Butcher Bird, Lanius excubitor, Wils. Amer. Orn. 



Linius septemrionalis, Bonap. Syn. 



Lanius Uorealis, Great Nor, hern Shrike, Sw. & Rich. 



Great American Shrike, Nutt Man. 



Great American Shrike, Lmius excubitor, Aud. Orn. Biog. 



Specific Character — Loral space, a patch behind the eye, wings 

 and tail brownish-black ; ba^al half of the primaries, the larger 

 portion of the lateral tail eathers, the next three toward their ends 

 and the tips of the rest white. Adult male with the upper parts 

 ash-gray, tinged with pale blue; loral space and a patch behind 

 the eye black ; a white streak over the eye ; lower parts grayish 

 white, faintly marked with transverse undulating lines of dusky ; 

 wings brownish-black; primaries at base white — the secondaries 

 and their coverts tipped with the same ; tail long and rounded, 

 black — the middle feathers tipped with white, which color increases 

 on the rest, the larger portion of the lateral feathers being of that 



