7$ GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD. 



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 aston- 

 ishing, 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 most cultivated parts of the country, 

 hovering about our hedgerows, 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 cinereous; 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, tipt 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 tipt 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 colour, 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. The figure on the plate will 

 give a perfect idea of the bird. The female is easily distin- 



