Description
Title: Birds and nature
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Text Appearing After Image:
THE LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. (Lanius ludovicianus.) In the Loggerhead Shrike nature hasproduced a curious and puzzHng com-bination of avian characteristics. Thebill and head are of the falcon type,the mouth is ornamented with bristleslike the flycatchers, the feet are thoseof the song birds and the food habitsare those of the hawk. What wonderis it that ornithologists have been puz-zled to know just where to place thesestrange creatures in the nomenclatureof the birds. The name of Butcher Bird is givento the Shrikes on account of their habitof impaling their prey upon thorns, alocality near a nest looking, as ex-pressed by one writer, like a butchersrack filled with meat. They are prob-ably compelled to resort to this methodon account of the weakness of theirfeet, which do not enable them to holdtheir prey as do the powerful feet ofbirds of prey. The Loggerhead Shrikemay be justly called a bird of prey,being, in fact, fully as predaceous as anyof the hawks or owls. Its food is varied,rangin
Date 1905
Source https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14568940249/
Source book page: https://archive.org/stream/birdsnature21905chic/birdsnature21905chic#page/n31/mode/1up
Author Internet Archive Book Images
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Birds_and_nature_(1905)_(14568940249).jpg

The loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) is a passerine bird. It is the only member of the shrike family endemic to North America; the related northern shrike (L. excubitor) occurs north of its range but also in the Palearctic. It is nicknamed the butcherbird after its carnivorous tendencies, as it consumes prey such as amphibians, insects, lizards, small mammals and small birds.