PASSERINE. 253. 
a small tooth on its sides, are so courageous and cruel, that many 
naturalists have thereby been induced to place them among the birds 
of prey. In fact, they pursue small birds, and successfully defend 
themselves against the larger ones, even attacking the latter when it 
is necessary to remove them from their nests.(1) 
There are four or five species of this subdivision in France. 
Lanius excubitor, L.; Enl. 445; Naum. 49. As large as a 
thrush; ash coloured above; white beneath; wings, tail, and a 
band around the eye, black; some white on the scapulars, the 
base of the wing-quills, and on the external edge of the lateral 
quills of the tail. It remains in France the whole year. 
In the south of Europe there is a race, or perhaps a species of a 
deeper colour, with a vinous tint underneath—JZan. meridionalis, 
Temm. There are others in America still more closely allied to 
it. (2) 
Lan. excubitor minor, Gm.; Enl. 32, 13 Lan. minor, Naum. 50. 
(The Little Shrike.) Somewhat smaller than the Common 
Shrike, the beak shorter and thicker, wings and tail similar; 
. cinereous above; reddish on the belly; the black bands of the 
eyes united, on the forehead, in a large bandeau. A very dis- 
tinct species. 
Lan. collurio-rufus, and Lan. pomeranus, Gm.; Enl. 9, 2; 
Lan. rutilus, Lath.; Lan. ruficollis, Sh.; Lan. rufus, Naum. 
51. (The Red Shrike.) The bandeau, wings and tail of the 
preceding; not quite so large; top of the head and neck, a 
vivid red; back black; the scapulars, belly and rump, white. 
Lan. collurio, Gm.; Enl. 313 Naum. 52. (The Butcher Bird.) 
Still smaller; top of the head and rump ash coloured; back and 
wings fawn coloured; whitish above; a black band over the 
eye; wing-quills black edged with fawn colour, those of the tail 
black, the lateral ones white at base. It destroys small Birds, 
young Frogs and great numbers of Insects, which it sticks upon 
the thorns of bushes, in order to devour them at leisure, or to 
find them again when wanted. 
The last three species leave France during the winter. 
Other countries have several of these Shrikes with arcuated beaks, 
(1) It is from this first subdivision that M. Vieillot has made his genus Lanius, 
Gal. pl. cxxxy. 
(2) Lan. carolinensis, Wils:., 1, xxii, 5,and his Lan. excubitor, 1, v. 1, which he 
- considers as the same. M. Ch. Bonaparte makes two species of them, and refers 
them to the Lan. ludovicianus, and Lan. septentrionalis of Gm.; or to the Lan. 
ardesiacus and borealis of Vieillot, Am. 51 and 50; we must confess, however, that 
there is but little resemblance between these different figures. 
