SbrfftcsiFiotes 



It may be of interest if I describe a 

 shrike just received from Japan. The 

 friend who sent it (a mounted specimen) 

 trusted it to a paper box by the post, and 

 when it arrived its shape and plumage had 

 been somewhat set awry; but the close 

 resemblance to our Louisiana shrike {lu- 

 dovicianus) is surprising. The Japanese 

 bird may be a trifle smaller than ours, and 

 its colors are less bright. The black stripe 

 on either side of its head passes across the 

 eye (without the white dots or borderings 

 that distinguish our sentinel shrike) and 

 ends at the base of the upper mandible. 

 The white of its lower body is not pure, 

 being tinged irregularly with pale rust- 

 brown, which becomes evener and heavier 

 on the sides below the wings, running as 

 far back as nearly to the root of the tail. 



The specimen, looked at fifty feet away, 

 could scarcely be distinguished from the 

 loggerhead; but nearer inspection shows, 

 besides the differences already mentioned, 

 that its breast is closely and evenly marked 

 with dim, wavy brown lines, and its chin 

 and throat have a dusky shadow vaguely 

 I3S 



