A LIST OF THE BIRDS OF BERWICK-ON-TWEED 81 



ROOK, Corvus frugilegus, Linnaeus. Abundant at all seasons, 

 there being three considerable rookeries within the borough Castle 

 Hills, Sanson Seal, and Marshall Meadows. 



White or pied varieties are not unfrequently met with amongst 

 the young birds, various shades of brown and grey also occurring ; 

 more rarely the feathers are barred, or spotted, with one or other of 

 these colours, suggesting, as has been supposed, an approach to the 

 spotted nest-plumage so common amongst the Passer es. All these 

 varieties have occurred in the district, our museum containing one 

 or more specimens of each. 



GREAT GREY SHRIKE, Lanins excubitor, Linnaeus. Rather an 

 uncertain winter visitant, appearing in some seasons in considerable 

 numbers, and not again perhaps for several years. The following 

 have occurred in the borough, within recent years : 



One shot at Spittal, 25th November 1882. 



One seen near Ord Cottage, December 1886. 



One picked up upon the railway near the town on gth April 1889. 



One seen in a garden near the pier, 3rd December 1889. 



One shot at Yarrow Slake, ist January 1890. 



One shot at Spittal a few days later. 



Another near Berwick about same time. 



On 29th or 3oth January 1892, the late Mr. Evan G. Sanderson 



saw one amongst the trees on Bank Hill ; and several others 



might be mentioned. 



Most of the birds which occur here exhibit traces of immaturity 

 in the barring of the plumage, more or less faintly in different indi- 

 viduals, of the under parts ; and some of the specimens undoubtedly 

 show only one white bar upon the wing, and are therefore perhaps 

 referable to the more northern race, Lanius major, of Pallas. 



RED-BACKED SHRIKE, Lanius collurio, Linnaeus. A rare acci- 

 dental visitant, of which two examples have occurred in the borough. 

 One was killed by a lad with a stone, at Tweedmouth, in the 

 beginning of August 1879, and is preserved in the Museum here; 

 the other was shot by my brother, on i5th September 1883, on the 

 sea banks about a mile and a half north of Berwick, and is now in 

 my collection. The day on which the latter was killed was thick 

 and misty, and a Pied Flycatcher was found flitting about the 

 rocks at high-water mark, near the same place. Both the shrikes are 

 in immature plumage (see "Hist. Berw. Nat. Club," vol. ix. p. 165 ; 

 and vol. x. p. 386). 



WOODCHAT, Lanius pomer anus, Sparrman. A rare bird through- 

 out the country, and does not appear to have been noticed north of 

 the Tweed. It ought not, strictly speaking, to be included in our 

 list, but in the case of casual migrants a parliamentary boundary is 

 irksome, and as two examples have occurred, only a few miles to the 

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