128 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



Family LANIID^. 



Genus LANIUS, Linnfeus. 



GEEAT GREY SHEIKE. 



Lanius excuhitor, Linnaeus. S.N., i., p. 135 



(1766). 



Great Shrike, Boys, 1792 ; Great Butcher Bird. 



The Great Grey Shrike is an occasional autumn and 

 winter visitor to the county of Kent, and generally soli- 

 tary. The number of instances recorded and the dates 

 of the occurrences are mostly in October and November. 



The Bev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, in his Ornithology of 

 Kent, 1844, calls this bird the "Ash-coloured Shrike," 

 and says that " this bird has been shot in the neighbour- 

 hood of Dover." In the same year Mr. J. B. Spencer 

 noted the capture of the Great Grey Shrike at Black- 

 heath on or about October 12, 1844, and he says: "A 

 birdcatcher whom I occasionally employ has just brought 

 me a specimen of the Great Butcher-bird, which he 

 caught in the act of pouncing on one of his lure birds : 

 it was taken alive, and I regret he killed it, as I should 

 like to have studied its habits. It agrees most exactly 

 with Bewick's woodcut and description. Mr. J. H, 

 Gurney, jun., states, in the Zoologist, 1869: "I received 

 a Great Grey Shrike, in the flesh, from Dover, on 

 November 14, 1869. It had only one white spot on the 

 wing, and the breast is marked with numerous greyish 

 semilunar lines ; hence I conclude it is a female. Mr. 

 Stevenson remarks {Birds of Norfolk, p. 62) that he has 

 examined old females which showed no trace of these 

 semilunar markings, and were exactly like males, with,^ 

 I presume, two white spots on the wing." 



