122 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[30.] 3. Lanius elegans. (Swainson.) White-winged Shrike. 



Family. Laniadae. Sub-family. Lanianse. Swainson. 



Ch. Sp. Lanius elegans, pulchre plurnbeus subtus candidus, frontula capiti concolori, speculo albo conspicuo, 

 Cauda gracili elongato-cuneata margine albo percincta, remige secunda sextam superanti ; quarto, longissima, 

 tarsis rostrum longitudine superanlibus. 



Sp. Ch. White-winged Shrike, clear bluish-grey, beneath unspotted white ; with a frontlet of the same colour 

 with the head ; a broad white band across the wing; a slender and very cuneiform tail, entirely bordered 

 with white ; the second quill feather longer than the sixth, the fourth the longest ; and tarsi exceeding the 

 length of the bill, (measured from the angle of the mouth.) 



A specimen of this handsome Shrike exists in the British Museum, to which it 

 was presented, together with other birds from the fur-countries, by the Hudson's 

 Bay Company. The particular district from whence it was brought, however, is 

 not noted; and we have no account of its habits. It may be at once distinguished 

 from the species mentioned in the preceding pages, by the much greater quantity 

 of white on its wings and tail, its narrower tail feathers, longer tarsi, and less 

 curved claws. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a specimen in the British Museum. 



Colour of the plumage on the dorsal aspect of the head and body clear bluish-grey ; the 

 tail coverts being somewhat lighter, and the exterior margins of the scapularies nearly white. 

 The lateral marks on the head, the wings with the exception of the white parts, and the 

 middle of the tail, are pitch-black. The lateral mark is broader, particularly before the orbit, 

 than in the two preceding species, and the frontlet is scarcely lighter than the crown of the 

 head. There is a white band on the wings, an inch and a half broad, crossing the bases of all 

 the primaries, from the second to the tenth inclusive. The secondaries are broadly tipped 

 with white ; their exterior margins, and the whole of their interior webs (with the exception 

 of a black patch near the tips of the first two), are also white. The first primary and the 

 three tertiaries are black. The two central pairs of tail feathers are very slightly tipped with 

 white ; the two next pairs have broad white tips ; and the two outer pairs have entirely white 

 webs, the shafts alone being brownish. The whole under plumage, with the exception of the 

 brownish tips of the quill feathers and the centre of the tail, is pure white. Bill and legs 

 blackish ; the lower mandible not pale at the base, as in L. borealis. 



Form, &c. — Bill shorter than that of L. borealis, and a little wider at the base ; its curva- 

 ture much the same, and the tooth equally large. The under mandible is shorter and more 



