PASSERES. CONIROSTRES. 



character, never, however, prolonged to anything 

 like a continuous song. 



According to Mr. Hewitson, the Shrike builds 

 its nest in thick bushes and high hedges ; it is 

 composed of umbelliferous plants, roots, moss, 

 and wool, lined with finer roots and dried grasses. 

 The eggs are from five to seven in number, of a 

 bluish white, spotted and blotched with brown or 

 purplish grey.* 



TRIBE IV. CONIROSTRES. 



TIJIS also is an immense assemblage of species, 

 only less numerous than the last, comprising, like 

 it, birds of much diversity of size, form, struc- 

 ture, and habit. Naturalists consider the Co- 

 nirostres as displaying the highest degree of 

 organization in all their parts collectively, and 

 consequently this Tribe is typical not only in the 

 Passerine Order, but in the whole Class of Birds. 

 The principal character by which they are asso- 

 ciated is, that the beak, though varying greatly in 

 shape and comparative size, is yet for the most 

 part short, but thick, and very strong, more or 

 less conical in form, and in general destitute of 

 any notch at the tip. In one extensive tropical 

 group, however, that of the gaily coloured Ta- 

 nagers of America, the beak, though decidedly of 

 conirostral form 3 is distinctly notched, and this 

 probably constitutes one link of connexion be- 

 tween this tribe and the preceding. The feet are, 



* Hewitson's Oology, cviii. 



