52 GREAT AM:RICAN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD 
strong, and are unequal to the task of grasping and teamng his prey, 
like those of the Owl and Falcon kind. He, therefore, wisely avails 
himself of the powers of the former, both in strangling his prey, and 
in tearing it to pieces while feeding. 
The character of the Butcher Bird is entitled to no common degree 
of respect. His activity is visible in all his motions; his courage and 
intrepidity beyond every other bird of his size, (one of his own tribe 
only excepted, L. tyrannus, or King Bird;) and in affection for his 
young, he is surpassed-by no other. He associates with them in the 
latter part of summer, the whole family hunting in company. He 
attacks the largest Hawk or Eagle in their defence, with a resolution 
truly astonishing; so that all of them respect him, and, on every 
occasion, decline the contest. As the snows of winter approach, he 
descends from the mountainous forests, and from the regions of the 
north, to the more cultivated parts of the country, hovering about our 
hedge-rows, orchards, and meadows, and disappears again early in 
April. 
The Great American Shrike is ten inches in length, and thirteen 
in extent; the upper part of the head, neck, and back, is pale cinere- 
ous ; sides of the head, nearly white, crossed with a bar of black that 
passes from the nostril, through the eye, to the middle of the neck ; 
the whole under parts, in some specimens, are nearly white, in others 
more dusky, and thickly marked with minute transverse curving lines 
of light brown; the wings are black, tipped with white, with a single 
spot of white on the primaries, just below their coverts; the scapulars, 
or long downy feathers that fall over the upper part of the wing, are 
pure white ; the rump and tail-coverts, a very fine gray or light ash; 
the tail is cuneiform, consisting of twelve feathers, the two middle 
ones wholly black, the others tipped more and more with white to the 
exterior ones, which are nearly all white; the legs, feet, and claws 
are black; the beak straight, thick, of a light blue color; the upper 
mandible furnished with a sharp process, bending down greatly at the 
point, where it is black, and beset at the base with a number of long 
black hairs or bristles; the nostrils are also thickly covered with 
recumbent hairs; the iris of the eye is a light hazel; pupil, black. 
Fig. 15 will give a perfect idea of the bird. The female is easily 
distinguished by being ferruginous on the back and head, and having 
the band of black extending only behind the eye, and of a dirty 
brown or burnt color; the under parts are also something rufous, and 
the curving lines more strongly marked; she is rather less than the 
male, which is different from birds of prey in general, the females of 
which are usually the larger of the two. 
In the 4rctic Zoology, we are told that this species is frequent in 
-ussia, bnt does not extend to Siberia; yet one was taken within 
Behring’s Straits, on the Asiatic side, in lat. 66°; and the species 
probably extends over the whole continent of North America, from 
the Western Ocean. Mr. Bell, while on his travels through Russia, 
had one of these birds given him, which he kept in a room, having 
fixed up a sharpened stick for him in the wall; and on turning small 
birds loose in the room, the Butcher Bird instantly caught them by 
the throat in such a manner as soon to suffocate them; and then 
