LANIAD^E. 113 



species in his description of the " Great Shrike," in Arctic Zoology ; his account, 

 therefore, cannot be cited with confidence, either for one species or the other. 



We must now compare our specimens with the Lanins b or talis of M. Vieillot, 

 whose description is so applicable to the female of our bird, and to the female 

 of Wilson's excubitor, that we feel no doubt of the identity of all three. But it 

 may well be inquired, why this author, who appears to have been in America, and 

 to have seen the borealis in its native regions, should have omitted all mention of 

 the male bird ? — presuming- that Wilson is correct in describing the male as dif- 

 fering so much in colour from the female. Now the only solution we can give to 

 this question is, by referring the reader to our remarks upon Lanius ardosiaceus, 

 and in being compelled to add, that this writer's statements, upon similar matters 

 of fact, have been frequently called in question, or positively denied., by the 

 American ornithologists. 



From the foregoing statements we feel justified in concluding — First, that the 

 accounts of the Northern Shrike of Latham (Syn., i., p. 165, Gen. Hist., ii., p. 95), 

 and of Gmelin, Shaw, and Vieillot, are undeserving citation, as being totally 

 inapplicable to any known American bird, and as having, in all probability, ori- 

 ginated in a description, hasty and imperfect in itself, or drawn up from a young 

 or mutilated Shrike of an unknown species. — Secondly, that the male of borealis 

 has been mistaken by Pennant and Latham for the European excubitor ; and that 

 the female appears to have been unknown to either. — Thirdly, that the female of 

 borealis, although stated by M. Vieillot to be exactly like the male, is in reality 

 very different ; this writer, as we shall subsequently show, having confounded the 

 true male with his L. ardosiaceus. — Sw. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a, female, killed at Carlton House, June, 1827. 



Colour of the upper aspect of the head, neck, back, scapularies, and part of the lesser 

 wing coverts, intermediate between yellowish-brown and yellowish-grey*. Tail coverts whitish, 

 with a slight tinge of ash-grey, and some very obscure cross lines. The secondary coverts 

 and the adjoining row of lesser coverts are pitch-black, the latter being narrowly edged with 

 the general colour of the back. The primary coverts, primaries, and secondaries, are dark 

 liver-brown. The third primary and following ones to the tenth inclusive have a white space 

 next the quills, which is slightly mottled with brown, and is mostly concealed by the coverts. 

 The second primary is slightly bordered with greyish-white at the same place, and the seventh 

 and following primaries, and all the secondaries, are narrowly edged at their tips with soiled 

 white. The tail is pitch-black, with a white border ; its two central feathers are entirely 



* i. e., Yellowish-brown, with much bluish-grey shining through it. 



