i62 BUTCHER BIRD. Clafs 11. 



and 'Thornfreker. We have feen them, when confined 

 in a cage, treat their food in much the fame manner, 

 flicking it againft the wires before they would devour 

 it. Mr. Edwards very juftly imagines that as nature 

 has not given thefe birds (Irength fufficient to tear 

 their prey to pieces with their feet, as the hawks do, 

 they are obliged to have recourfe to this artifice. 



The crown of the head, the back, and the coverts 

 that lie immediately on the joints of the wings are 

 afii colored ; the reft: of the coverts black : the quil 

 feathers are black, marked in their middle with a 

 broad white bar j and except the four firft feathers, 

 and the fame number of thofe next the body, are tipt 

 with white : the tail confifts of twelve feathers of un- 

 equal lengths, the middle being the longeft ; the two 

 middlemofi: are black, the next on each fide tipt with 

 white, and in the reft the white gradually increafes to 

 the outmoft, where that color has either entire pof- 

 feftion, or there remains only a fpot of black : the 

 cheeks are white, but crofTed from the bill to the 

 hind part of the head with a broad black ftroke : the 

 throat, breaft and belly are of a dirty white : the legs 

 are black. The female is of the fame color with the 

 male, the breaft and belly excepted, which are marked 

 tranfverfely with numerous femicircular brown lines. 



II. The 



