SHRIKES. 511 



seen. Occasionally others will join the original assailant, and assist in driving off their 

 common enemy." Anatomically the drongos are remarkable as being the only Passeres 

 "in which the accessory semitendinosus is absent, their myological formula being AX. 



Perhaps not distantly related to the shrikes, the wax-wings, and their few allies, 

 the AMPELID^E will have to find a place somewhere in this neighborhood. A familiar 

 example of this small group is the beautiful cedar-bird (Ampelis cedrorum) from North 

 America. The other species occurring in our country {A. garrulus) is more northern 

 in its distribution, and is also found all over the northern parts of the Old World. A 

 very unique ornament in these birds is the horny flattened lamellae-like ends of red 

 sealing-wax appended to the shafts of the secondaries, and sometimes to the tail-feath- 

 ers, as seen in the accompanying cut. The history of the Bohemian wax-wing is 

 interesting for its gipsy-like wanderings, one winter visiting one country, next season 

 another, often in enormous flocks, and usually with the intervals of many years, so 

 that in former times their appearance was regarded as sure forebodings of war and 

 pestilence, their arrival being dreaded as much as that of a comet. Another interest- 

 ing feature of its ornithological history is the fact that this familiar bird for a long 

 time eluded the search of the oologists ; for its breeding habits and eggs, and even the 

 places where it breeds, were unknown thirty years ago, until finally discovered in 

 Lapland by Mr. Wolley, after a diligent search during four summers. 



It would only be repetition of former statements in regard to doubtful families 

 were we to say anything more about the position in the system of forms like the 

 wood-swallows, or swallow-shrikes (ARTAMID.E), a small family of shrike-like birds 

 from Australia, and adjacent islands, similar in habits, flight, and partly in appearance 

 to the swallows. They are birds of sombre, dusky, or gray colors. A very peculiar 

 habit of the Australian common wood-swallow (Artamus sordidus) is recorded by 

 Mr. Gould's assistant, Mr. Gilbert, during his residence at Swan River, as follows : 

 " The greatest peculiarity in the habit of this bird is its manner of suspending itself 

 in perfect clusters, like a swarm of bees ; a few birds suspending themselves on the 

 under side of a dead branch, while others of the flock attach themselves one to the 

 other, in such numbers that they have been observed nearly of the size of a bushel 

 measure." 



Had it not been for the generally accepted family term for the foregoing group 

 we should have lumped them with the heterogeneous assemblage called the LAXIID.E, 

 shrikes or butcher-birds, the typical forms of which are characterized by their stout 

 and strongly hooked and toothed bill, which in some of the genera strongly resembles 

 that of the Accipitres, without having the cere at base, of course. 



In the types first to meet us, however, the bill is more straight, the coloration is 

 crow-like, and altogether the Gymnorhininas may be as nearly related to the ancestors 

 of the crows as to those of the shrikes. A structural feature of their own is that the 

 nostrils are placed very far forward, almost midway between base and tip of bill, are 

 quite bare of either bristles or feathers, and have entirely ossified margins. The 

 whitish blue color of the bill in some forms is also quite characteristic. Here belong 

 the crow-shrikes, genera Strepera, Cracticus, and Gymnorhina, from Australia, 

 Cracticits, also from the Austro-Malayan sub-region. A good example is given in 

 the 'piping crow-shrike '( G. tibiceti), figured on the plate facing page 510. It is 

 black and white, with a bluish ash-colored bill, and of the size of a small crow. 

 According to Gould, it is a bold and showy bird, which, when not harassed and 

 driven away, greatly enlivens and ornaments the lawns and gardens of the Australian 



