GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD. 
73 
arranged its plumage, sat as close to the light as possible, and 
sometimes chanted a few broken, irregular notes in that 
situation, as I sat writing or reading beside it. I also kept a 
young female of the same nest, during the greatest part of 
winter, but could not observe, in that time, any change in its 
plumage. # 
GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD. 
LANIUS EXCUBITOR.f — Plate V. Fig. I. 
La pie grische-grise, _De JBvffon , i. 296. PI. enl. 445 Peale's Museum , 
No. 664. — White Whisky John, Phil. Trans, lxii. 386 Arct. Zool. ii. No. 127. 
LANIUS BOREALIS. — Vieillot. 
Lanius borealis, Vieill. — North. Zool. ii. 3. 
The form and countenance of this bird bespeak him full of 
courage and energy ; and his true character does not belie his 
appearance, for he possesses these qualities in a very eminent 
degree. He is represented on the plate rather less than his 
* This bird is interesting, as shewing the remarkable change of colour 
which takes place in the group, and which, in many instances, has been the 
occasion of a multiplication of species. It will rank with the Baltimore bird 
in the Icterus of Brisson, and they will form the only individuals belonging 
to the northern continent of America. According to Audubon, the flesh of 
the Orchard Oriole is esteemed by the Creoles of Louisiana, and at the season 
when the broods have collected, and feed most upon insects in the moist 
meadows, they are procured for the table in considerable abundance Ed. 
f Wilson has marked this species with a note of doubt, shewing the accu- 
racy of his observation where he had such slender means of making out species ; 
a mistake also into which C. L. Bonaparte, with greater opportunities, has 
also fallen. Vieillot seems to have been the first to distinguish it, and 
Mr Swainson has satisfactorily pointed out the differences, in the Northern 
Zoology. Lanius excubitor is not found at all in America, and this species 
seems to fill up its want ; the chief differences are in the size, Lanius borealis 
being larger. The female is of a browner shade, with more gray underneath ; 
the former a distribution of colour in the females unknown among those 
bearing similar shades ; in habits they in every way agree. — Ed. 
