SHRIKES 
391 
dignified presence. Though so reserved in bearing he is full of 
vivacity and song, and will sometimes dart up in the air and come 
down singing. 
His sallies often appear to be made for insects, being in regular 
kingbird manner, and at times in southern California when the 
brush is full of millers, the birds seem to be catching them. But 
berries are their ordinary food, the mistletoe, pepper, and juniper 
being prime favorites. 
In the breeding season in leaving the trees to go back to their 
nesting grounds, they often rise obliquely for perhaps a hundred 
feet and then fly on evenly straight to their destination, though 
sometimes while flying level and high they change their course by 
odd, sudden jerks. When near the nest the male often closes his 
wings and shoots obliquely down with tilting tail. 
About the nest the birds have a variety of notes. The commonest, 
which resembles the call of a young robin, is given by both male 
and female, with a flash of the tail. The male has also a scold, a 
meadowlark-like note, and a harsh alarm-call drawn out like ca-rack 
or ca-rac-ack. His ordinary song, though with weak, squeaky 
notes, has phrases of rich quality suggesting the o-ka-lee of the red¬ 
wing ; and taken as a whole, jumbled notes, flutelike tones, musical 
outbursts, and all, the song is most pleasing because of its vivacity 
and brightness. 
The nests of the few individuals I have watched were built mainly 
by the males, the females of a brush patch going off by themselves 
while their lords worked at home. 
FAMILY LANIIDiE: SHRIKES. 
GENUS LANIUS. 
General Characters. — Bill large and powerful, notched, toothed, and 
hooked ; wing with ten primaries ; wing and tail rounded ; feet large and 
strong; tarsus distinctly scaled. 
KEY TO ADULTS. 
Fig. 482. 
1. Lores and nasal tufts never wholly black .... borealis, p. 392. 
1'. Lores and nasal tufts always wholly black. 
2. Under parts pure white . excubitorides, p. 392. 
2'. Under parts dull white, grayish, or brownish, often finely barred with 
grayish. 
3. Upper parts tinged with brownish. gambeli. p. 393. 
3'. Upper parts dark slate gray. anthonyi, p. 393. 
