Dr. Coues also found these birds rare summer residents in Arizona, and confirms its possession of rare local powers, producing a rich, sweet, and finely modulated song.
Mr. Robert Ridgway, in accompanying Mr. King’s party of explorations, writes that he found this curious bird only occasionally, most frequently among the pines of the Sierra Nevada, and only once or twice among the mountains east of that range. In July, 1867, he found a nest of this bird. It was in a deep ravine on the western slope of the Sierras, at an altitude of five thousand feet. It was placed in a cavity of the rocks forming the perpendicular upper bank of a sluice constructed for mining purposes, through which ran the waters of a considerable mountain stream. The nest was about a foot above the water, and was as bulky as that of the Harporhynchus rufus, and similarly constructed, being composed almost entirely of sticks. It contained four young. When he approached, the female was much excited, flying before, or running on the ground in the manner of a true Thrush. Mr. Ridgway makes no mention of its song.
Mr. Lord met with these birds only once, and then at Colville, towards the end of November. All the leaves had fallen, the ground was deeply covered with snow, and the cold was intense. His attention was first attracted by hearing a low sweet song, not unlike that of the Song Thrush of Europe, which at that season was a most unusual sound. On looking around he saw about twenty of these birds perched on the top sprays of some white thorn-bushes. In their mode of darting off and returning again they reminded him of a Shrike. He shot six, and could detect no material difference in plumage between males and females. In the stomachs of those he opened were the remains of small coleopterous insects and a few haws.
Family LANIIDÆ.—The Shrikes.
Char. Bill very powerful, strong, and much compressed, the tip abruptly hooked, deeply notched, and with a prominent tooth behind the notch; both mandibles distinctly notched, the upper with a distinct tooth behind, the lower with the point bent up. Tarsi longer than the middle toe, strongly scutellate. Primaries ten; first primary half the second, or shorter (occasionally wanting). Wings short, rounded; tail long and much graduated. Sides of tarsi with the plates divided on the outside.
Of this family only a single genus is known in North America.
Genus COLLURIO, Vigors.
Collurio, Vigors, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1831, 42. (Type, Lanius excubitor, L.)
Lanius, Auct. (not of Linnæus, whose type is L. cristatus).