AMERICAN BUTCHER BIRD. 
81 
GENUS XlX.—LANIUSy LiNNiEua. 
EXCVBITORf WILSON. — LANIUS SOltEALIS, VIEILL. 
AMERICAN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD. 
■'VILSON, PLATE V. FIG. I. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
T 
fiill countenance of this bird bespeak bim 
®ot T' energy ; and his true character does 
in appearance, for he possesses these qualities 
rp, eminent degree. 
p. species is by no means numerous in the lower 
Bto Peimsylvauia ; though most so during the 
aft, of November, December, and March. Soon 
*-^''8, it retires to the north, and to the higher 
dee***^ parts of the country to breed. It frequents the 
a T®st forests ; builds a large and compact nest in the 
fork of a small tree ; composed outwardly of 
vpjt.S^ass, and whitish moss, and warmly lined within 
feathers. The female lays six eggs, of a pale 
,(,j.^*^®aus colour, thickly marked at the greater end 
The* streaks of rufous. She sits fifteen days, 
tou- ^°’***B are produced early in June, sometimes 
ards the latter end of May ; and during the greater 
Part 
®Oloi 
the first season are of a brown ferruginous 
jar on the back. 
Wii 
W ’''"e compare the beak of this species with his 
diff claws, they appear to belong to two very 
*rent ordci-s of birds ; the former approaching in its 
'>« is 
tl, \®''**J»'tion to that of the accipitriue ; the latter to 
„ , ® ot the pies j and, indeed, in bis food and manners 
and 
Assimilated to both. For though man has arranged 
Sen ®Ahdivided this numerous class of animals into 
fe ea^^k* tribes and families, yet nature has united these 
feat q .®''**®r by such nice gradations, and so intimately, 
hardly possible to determine where one tribe 
Seve’ *?*' fee succeeding commences. We therefore find 
. .®al eminent naturalists classing this genus of birds 
'^ith the 
t'OL. U. 
accipitriue, others with the pies. Like the 
