supposed to be laying baits for mice and flying squirrels, when they are hoarding their Indian corn, as he for birds while thus disposing of the exuberance of his favourite food. Both the former and the latter retain the same habits in a state of confinement; the one filling every seam and chink of his cage with grain, crumbs of bread, &c. and the other sticking up, not only insects, but flesh, and the bodies of such birds as are thrown in to him, on nails or sharpened sticks, fixed up for the purpose. Nor, say others, is this practice of the Shrike difficult to be accounted for. Nature has given to this bird a strong, sharp, and powerful beak, a broad head, and great strength in the muscles of his neck; but his legs, feet and claws, are 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 only excepted, the King-bird, L. tyrannus, Linn.) 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, 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 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 in 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 band of black extending only behind the eye, and of a dirty brown or burnt colour, the under parts are also something rufous, and the curving lines more strongly marked; she is rather less than the male, which is different from birds of prey in general, the females of which are usually the larger of the two.

In the Arctic Zoology we are told that this species is frequent in Russia, but does not extend to Siberia; yet one was taken within Behring's straits, on the Asiatic side, in lat. 66°; and the species probably extends over the whole continent of North America, from the Western ocean. Mr. Bell, while on his travels through Russia, had one of these birds given him, which he kept in a room, having fixed up a sharpened stick for him in the wall; and on turning small birds loose in the room, the Butcher-bird instantly caught them by the throat in such a manner as soon to suffocate them; and then stuck them on the stick, pulling them on with bill and claws; and so served as many as were turned loose, one after another, on the same stick.*

* Edwards, v. vII, p. 231.

:

SPECIES 2. LANIUS CAROLINENSIS.*

LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE.

[Plate XXII.-Fig. 5.]

PEALE'S Museum, No. 557.

THIS species has a considerable resemblance to the Great American Shrike. It differs, however, from that bird in size, being a full inch shorter, and in colour, being much darker on the upper parts; and in having the frontlet black. It also inhabits the warmer parts of the United States; while the Great American Shrike is chiefly confined to the northern regions, and seldom extends to the south of Virginia.

This species inhabits the rice plantations of Carolina and Georgia, where it is protected for its usefulness in destroying mice. It sits, for hours together, on the fence, beside the stacks of rice, watching like a cat; and as soon as it perceives a mouse, darts on it like a Hawk. It also feeds on crickets and grasshoppers. Its note, in March, resembled the clear creaking of a sign board, in windy weather. It builds its nest, as I was informed, generally in a detached bush, much like that of the Mockingbird; but as the spring was not then sufficiently advanced, I had no opportunity of seeing its eggs. It is generally known by the name of the Loggerhead.

This species is nine inches long and thirteen in extent; the colour above is cinereous or dark ash; scapulars, and line over the eye, whitish; wings black, with a small spot of white at the base of the primaries, and tipt with white; a stripe of black pas

* Lanius Ludovicianus, LINN. which name must be adopted. In Buffon, pl. enl. 528, there is a figure of a young bird.-Synonymes: La Pie-griesche de la Louisiane, BRISS. 2, p. 162.-LATH. Ind. Orn. p. 69.

ses along the front through each eye, half way down the side of the neck; eye dark hazel, sunk below the eyebrow; tail cuneiform, the four middle feathers wholly black, the four exterior ones on each side tipt more and more with white to the outer one which is nearly all white; whole lower parts white, and in some specimens, both of males and females, marked with transverse lines of very pale brown; bill and legs black.

The female is considerably darker both above and below, but the black does not reach so high on the front; it is also rather less in size.

GENUS 5. PSITTACUS. PARROT.

P. CAROLINENSIS.

CAROLINA PARROT.

[Plate XXVI.-Fig. 1.]

LINN. Syst. 1, p. 97, ed. 10.-CATESBY, I, 11.--LATHAM, 1, 227.-Arct. Zool. 242, No. 132. Ibid. 133.--PEALE's Museum, No. 762.*

Or one hundred and sixty-eight kinds of Parrots, enumerated by European writers as inhabiting the various regions of the globe, this is the only species found native within the territory of the United States. The vast and luxuriant tracts lying within the torrid zone, seem to be the favourite residence of those noisy, numerous, and richly-plumaged tribes. The count de Buffon has, indeed, circumscribed the whole genus of Parrots to a space not extending more than twenty-three degrees on each side of the equator; but later discoveries have shown this statement to be incorrect; as these birds have been found on our continent as far south as the straits of Magellan, and even on the remote shores of Van Diemen's Land, in Terra Australasia. The species now under consideration is also known to inhabit the interior of Louisiana, and the shores of the Mississippi and Ohio, and their tributary waters, even beyond the Illinois river, to the neighbourhood of lake Michigan, in lat. 42° North; and, contrary to the generally received opinion, is chiefly resident in all these places. Eastward, however, of the great range of the Alleghany, it is seldom seen farther north * We add the following synonymes: La Perruche de la Caroline. BRISS. 4, p. 550.—Orange-headed Parrot, LATH. Gen. Syn. 1, p. 304. Ind. Orn. p.

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