GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD. 73 



placed on the same table with the candle, it seemed extremely 

 well pleased, fed and drank, drest, shook, and arranged its 

 plumage, sat as close to the light as possible, and sometimes 

 chanted a few broken, irregular notes in that situation, as I 

 sat writing or reading beside it. I also kept a young female 

 of the same nest during the greatest part of winter, but could 

 not observe, in that time, any change in its plumage.""' 



GEEAT AMERICAN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD. 



(Lanius excubitor.)^ 



PLATE V.— Fig. 1. 



La pie grische-grise, Bvffon, i. 296. PI. enl. 445. — Peale's Museum, No. 664. — 

 White Whisky John, Phil. Trans, lxii. 386.— Arct. Zool. ii. No. 127. 



LANIUS BOREALIS.-YmiULOT. 

 Lanius borealis, Vieill. — North. Zool. ii. 3. 



The form and countenance of this bird bespeak him full of 

 courage and energy ; and his true character does not belie his 



* This bird is interesting, as showing the remarkable change of colour 

 which takes place in the group, and which, in many instances, has been 

 the occasion of a multiplication of species. It will rank with the balti- 

 more bird in the Icterus of Brisson, and they will form the only indivi- 

 duals belonging to the northern continent of America. According to 

 Audubon, the flesh of the orchard oriole is esteemed by the Creoles of 

 Louisiana, and at the season when the broods have collected, and feed 

 most upon insects in the moist meadows, they are procured for the table 

 in considerable abundance. — Ed. 



t Wilson has marked this species with a note of doubt, showing the 

 accuracy of his observation where he had such slender means of making- 

 out species ; a mistake also into which C. L. Bonaparte, with greater 

 opportunities, has also fallen. Vieillot seems to have been the first to 

 distinguishit,andMr Swainson has satisfactorily pointed out the difference 

 in the " Northern Zoology." Lanius excubitor is not found at all in Ame- 

 rica, and this species seems to fill up its want ; the chief differences are in 

 the size, Lanius borealis being larger. The female is of a browner shade ; 

 with more gray underneath ; the former a distribution of colour in the 

 females unknown among those bearing similar shades ; in habits they 

 in every way agree. — Ed. 



