AMERICAN BUTCHER BIRD. 
85 
by no means, proportionably strong ; and are unequal 
to the task of grasping and tearing his prey, like those 
of the owl and falcon kind. He, therefore, wisely avails 
himself of the powers of the former, both in strangling 
his prey, and in tearing it to pieces while feeding. 
The character of the butcher bird is entitled to no 
common 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 affectiori 
for his young, he is surpassed by no other. He asso- 
ciates 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 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 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, which are nearly all white ; 
the legs, feet, and claws, are black ; the beak straight, 
thick, of a light blue colour, the upper mandible 
