78 
GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER BIRD. 
degree of respect. His activity is visible in all his motions ; 
his courage and intrepidity beyond every other bird of his 
size, (one of his own tribe only excepted, L . tyr annus , or King 
Bird ;) and in affection for his young, he is surpassed by no 
other. He associates with them in the latter part of summer, the 
whole family hunting in company. He attacks the largest Hawk 
or Eagle in their defence, with a resolution truly astonishing ; 
so that all of them respect him, and, on every occasion, decline 
the contest. As the snows of winter approach, he descends 
from the mountainous forests, and from the regions of the 
north, to the more cultivated parts of the country, hovering 
about our hedgerows, orchards, and meadows, and disappears 
again early in April. 
The Great American Shrike is ten inches in length, and 
thirteen in extent; the upper part of the head, neck, and back, 
is pale cinereous ; sides of the head, nearly white, crossed 
with a bar of black that passes from the nostril, through the 
eye, to the middle of the neck ; the whole under parts, in 
some specimens, are nearly white, in others more dusky, and j, 
thickly marked with minute transverse curving lines of light 
brown ; the wings are black, tipt with white, with a single 
spot of white on the primaries, just below their coverts; the 
scapulars, or long downy feathers that fall over the upper 1 
part of the wing, are pure white ; the rump and tail-coverts, a 
very fine gray or light ash ; the tail is cuneiform, consisting 
of twelve feathers, the two middle ones wholly black, the - 
others tipt more and more with white to the exterior ones, i 
which are nearly all white ; the legs, feet, and claws are black; 
the beak straight; thick, of a light blue colour, the upper 
mandible furnished with a sharp process, bending down greatly 
at the point, where it is black, and beset at the base with a 
number of long black hairs or bristles ; the nostrils are also 
thickly covered with recumbent hairs ; the iris of the eye is a 
light hazel ; pupil, black. The figure on the plate will give 
a perfect idea of the bird. The female is easily distinguished 
by being ferruginous on the back and head ; and having the 
