LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. 347 



black passes along the front, through each eye, half way down 

 the side of the neck ; eye, dark hazel, sunk below the eye- 

 brow ; tail, cuneiform, the four middle feathers wholly black ; 

 the four exterior ones on each side tipt more and more with 

 white to the outer one, which is nearly all white ; whole lower 

 parts white, and, in some specimens, both of males and females, 

 marked with transverse lines of very pale brown ; bill and 

 legs, black. 



The female is considerably darker both above and below, 

 but the black does not reach so high on the front ; it is also 

 rather less in size. 



Expedition. According to Dr Richardson, it is a more northern bird 

 than L. borealis, and does not advance farther north in summer than the 

 54° of latitude, and it attains that parallel only in the meridian of the 

 warm and sandy plains of the Saskatchewan, which enjoy an earlier 

 spring and longer summer than the densely wooded country betwixt 

 them and Hudson's Bay. Its manners are precisely similar to those of 

 L. borealis, feeding chiefly on grasshoppers, which are exceedingly numer- 

 ous. Its nest was found in a bush of willows, built of twigs of Artemesim 

 and dried grass, and lined with feathers ; the eggs, six in number, were 

 very pale yellowish gray, with many irregular and confluent spots of oil 

 green, interspersed with a few of smoke gray. 



The merit of unravelling this species from several very closely allied 

 to it in its native country, and from that to which it approaches nearest, 

 the L. excubitor of Europe, is due to Mr Swainson. The chief distinctive 

 characters given by that naturalist are the small proportions of the bill, 

 the frontal feathers crossed by a narrow band of deep black, the black 

 stripe on the side of the head encircling the upper margin of the eyelid, 

 lateral scales of the tarsus being divided in several pieces, the shorter 

 length of the wing when closed, and in the tail being more graduated ; 

 the total length is nine inches, six lines. 



4. Lanius elegans, Sw. — White-crowned shrike. 



Described by Mr Swainson, from a specimen in the British Museum, 

 to which it was presented from the Fur Countries by the Hudson's Bay 

 Company. It may at once be distinguished from the other American 

 shrikes by the much greater quantity of white on the wings and tail, 

 its narrower tail-feathers, longer tarsi, and less curved claws ; the length 

 is about nine inches. 



5. Lanius (?) natka, Penn. — Natka shrike. 



This species, the Nootka shrike of Dr Latham, from Nootka Sound, 

 on the northwest coast of North America, seems to be of such dubious 

 authority, that little can be said regarding it. — Ed. 



