LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. 301 



mice, which form the principal food of the g^o^vn birds at all seasons. 

 The Loggerheads rear only one brood in the season. 



Whilst this species is on wing, its motions are very rapid and direct, 

 its flight being produced by quick flutterings of the wings, without any 

 apparent undulation. The bird alights in a sudden firm manner, hke a 

 Hawk, stands erect, silent and watchful, until it spies its prey on the 

 ground, when it suddenly pounces upon it, striking it first loUh its bill, 

 but seizing it with its claws so immediately after, that the most careful 

 observation alone can enable one to decide as to the priority of either 

 action. I have never seen it attack birds, nor stick its prey on thorns in 

 the manner of the Great American Shrike. 



This bird appears in Louisiana only at intervals, and seldom remains 

 more than a few weeks in December or January. It never comes near 

 houses, although it frequents the fields around them. It has no note at 

 this period, and appears singly, alighting on the stacks and fences, where 

 it stands perched for a considerable time, carefully looking around over 

 the ground. As soon as the spot is thoroughly examined, it flies ofi" to 

 another, and there renews its search. 



I have given you, kind reader, the representation of a pair of these 

 Shrikes, contending for a mouse. The difference of plumage in the sexes 

 is scarcely perceptible ; but I have thought it necessary to figure both, 

 in order to shew the quarrelsome disposition of these birds even when 

 united by the hymeneal band. 



l^ANius LUDOViciANUS, Linn. Syst. Nat. voL L p. 134 — Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of 



Birds of the United States, p. 72- 

 LoGGEHHEAD Shrike, LAifitJS CAKOLiNENSis, WUs. Amer. Omith. voL iii. p. 57. 



PI. 22. fig. 8. 



Adult Male. Plate LVII. Fig. 1. 



Bill of moderate length, straightish, robust, acute, compressed ; upper 

 mandible with the dorsal outline a little arched, the tip declinate, the 

 edges acute and overlapping, with a sharp process near the tip ; lower 

 mandible with the dorsal line a little convex, the tip acute and ascending. 

 Nostrils basal, lateral, half closed by an arched membrane. Head large. 

 Neck and body robust. Feet of ordinary length ; tarsus scutellate be- 

 fore, acute behind ; toes free, the lateral ones nearly equal ; claws arched, 

 compressed, acute. 



