268 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



Family LANnDJE. 



Bill strong and compressed, the tip abruptly hooked ; both mandibles distinctly 

 notched, the upper with a distinct tooth behind, the lower with the point bent up ; 

 tarsi longer than the middle toe, strongly scutellate; primaries ten; first primary 

 half the second, or shorter (occasionally wanting). 



The sub-families of Laniidce belonging to the United States are as follows: — 



Laniin.e. — Bill very powerful, much compressed, and abruptly hooked, with a 

 very prominent tooth behind the notch; wings considerably rounded; tail rather 

 long and graduated ; sides of the tarsi scutellate behind. 



ViEEONiN^. — Bill moderate, cylindrical, somewhat compressed ; wings long, the 

 first primary sometimes wanting; tail short and nearly even ; sides of the tarsi behind 

 not scutellate. 



Sub-Family Laniin^e. — The Slirihes. 



COLLYRIO, MoEHRiNG. 



Collyrio, Moeheing, Genera Avium (1752), 28. (Type Lanius excubitor, L.) 

 Lanius, of Authors. •* 



Feathers of forehead stiffened; base of bill, including nostrils, covered by bristly 

 feathers directed forward ; bill shorter than the head, much compressed, and very 

 powerful ; culraen decurved from base, the mandible abruptly bent down in a power- 

 ful hook, what in acute lobe near the tip; tip of lower mandible bent upwards in a 

 hook ; the gonys very convex ; rictus with long bristles ; legs stout ; the tarsi are 

 rather short, longer than the middle toe; the lateral equal; the claws all very sharp 

 and much curved ; wings rounded ; the first primary about half the second, which is 

 equal to the sixth or seventh; tail longer than the wings, much graduated, the 

 feathers broad. 



COLLYRIO BORE ALIS. — Baird. 



The Great Northern Shrike; Butcher-bird. 



Lanius septentrionalis, Bonaparte. Syn. (1828), 72. Bon. List (1838). Nutt. 

 Man., L( 18.32) 258. 



Lanius borealis, Audubon. SjTi. (1839), 157. , 



Lanius excubitor. Wils., I. (1808) 74. Aud. Cm. Biog., II. (1834) 534. 



Description. 



Above light bluish-ash, obscurely soiled with reddish-brown ; forehead, sides of 

 the crown, scapulars, and upper tail coverts hoarj'-white ; beneath white, the breast 

 with fine transverse lines ; wings and tail black, the former with a white patch at 

 base of primaries and tips of small quills, the latter with the lateral feathers tipped 

 with white; bill blackish-brown, considerably lighter at the base; black stripe from 

 the bill through and behind the eye, but beneath the latter interrupted by a whitish 

 crescent. Female and young with the gray soiled with brownish. 



