74 GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD. 
true size, but in just proportion, and with a fidelity that will 
enable the European naturalist to determine, whether this be 
really the same with the great cinereous Shrike ( Lanius 
excubitor , Linn.) of the eastern continent or not; though the 
progressive variableness of the plumage, passing, according to 
age, and sometimes to climate, from ferruginous to pale ash, 
and even to a bluish white, renders it impossible that this 
should be an exact representation of every individual. 
This species is by no means numerous in the lower parts of 
Pennsylvania ; though most so during the months of Novem- 
ber, December, and March. Soon after this, it retires to the 
north, and to the higher inland parts of the country to breed. 
It frequents the deepest forests; builds a large and compact | 
nest in the upright fork of a small tree ; composed outwardly 
of dry grass, and whitish moss, and warmly lined within with 
feathers. The female lays six eggs, of a pale cinereous ! 
colour, thickly marked at the greater end with spots and 
streaks of rufous. She sits fifteen days. The young are 
produced early in June, sometimes towards the latter end of 
May ; and during the greater part of the first season are of a 
brown ferruginous colour on the back. 
When we compare the beak of this species with his legs : 
and claws, they appear to belong to two very different orders 
of birds ; the former approaching, in its conformation, to that 
of the Accipitrine ; the latter to those of the Pies ; and, indeed, 
in his food and manners he is assimilated to both. For though 
man has arranged and subdivided this numerous class of 
animals into separate tribes and families, yet nature has united 
these to each other by such nice gradations, and so intimately, 
that it is hardly possible to determine where one tribe ends, | 
or the succeeding commences. We therefore find several 
eminent naturalists classing this genus of birds with the 
Accipitrine, others with the Pies. Like the former, he preys 
occasionally on other birds ; and, like the latter, on insects, 
particularly grasshoppers, which I believe to be his principal 
food ; having at almost all times, even in winter, found them 
