THE AMERICAN SPECIES OF LANIUS 545 



cusses it elaborately, comes to the conclusion that it is "an im- 

 aginary species", that is to say, compounded of two; but his 

 argument in this case does not seem to me sound. He admits, 

 in fact, that were it not for a certain u if" which seems to me 

 quite immaterial, he "should have at once concluded that his 

 [Vieillot's] ardosiaceus was the same bird as Wilson's Caroli- 

 nensis ". 



11. LANIUS CAROLINENSIS, Wils. Am. Orn. iii. 1811, 57, pi. 

 22, f. 5. Wilson gave us two species of Shrikes, one of which, 

 "L. excubitor" Wils., nee L., is the L. borealis of Vieillot ; and 

 the other, to which Wilson gave the new name of carolinensis, 

 is the L. ludovicianus of Brisson and Linnaeus. 



12. LANIUS EXCUBITORIDES, Sw. FBA. ii. 1831, 115, pi. 34. 

 (See the full synonymy beyond, p. 562.) Swainson's descrip- 

 tion and beautiful figure first brought to notice the most 

 common and widely distributed species of Shrike of North 

 America borealis being rather northerly, and typical ludovici- 

 anus being chiefly confined to the South Atlantic and Gulf 

 States. No doubt, Swainson's bird had been seen before, and 

 it may actually be involved in some of our accounts of each of 

 the other species, but without being recognized as different 

 from either one of them. It is, in fine, the usual style of 

 Shrike of the United States, and the only kind that is known 

 to extend into Mexico. It was currently rated as a good 

 species until very recently, when I reduced it to its proper 

 grade of a geographical variety, upon showing that the 

 ascribed characters are found to merge insensibly into those 

 of typical ludovicianus. 



13. LANIUS ELEGANS, Sw. FBA. ii. 1831, 122. This species 

 has given much trouble. It is minutely described by its author 

 from a specimen in the British Museum, "to which it was pre- 

 sented, together with other birds from the fur-countries, by the 

 Hudson's Bay Company". The name occasionally occurs in 

 our literature (e. g. NUTT. Man. i. 2d ed. 1840, 287 ; BD. Eep. 

 Great Salt Lake, 1852, 328; BP. Eev. et Mag. Zool. 1853, 295) 

 entirely upon its original Swainsonian basis; and in 1870 

 (PZS. 595; see, also, EIDGW. Am Nat. vii. 1873, 609), Messrs. 

 Dresser and Sharpe announced, from examination of Swain- 

 son's type-specimen, that it was L. lahtora of Asia, described 

 by some mistake as North American. So much for L. elegans 

 of Swaiuson. 



14. But Dr. Gambel, in 1843 (Pr. Phila. Acad. 1843, 261), de- 



35 B C 



