130 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



at Bougbton Monchelsea by Mr. F. Smitb, in February, 

 1881 ; and a female taken at Ulcombe, November, 1891, 

 by Mr. G. Bensted. In a note on this species by Mr. 

 H. Lamb, a male was shot near Maidstone on January 

 19, 1887, and two others were seen that same winter. 

 In the Zoologist, 1890, Mr. W. Oxenden Hammond says : 

 " While shooting in the woods here (Wingham) at the 

 end of November (1889), a Great Shrike came out close 

 to one of the guns. My friend, who knows the bird well, 

 said, the day being a bright one, it looked like a gleam 

 of silver as it went past him. It went on to an adjoining 

 cover, but we did not meet with it again." According 

 to Mr. W. Prentis, in his Birds of Bainliam, this species 

 has been obtained in that district several times. 



Mr. S. A. Davies, in his ornithological notes from the 

 mouth of the Stour, near Sandwich, says: "On October 

 2, 1895, in the coarse of the morning we went inland 

 over the marshes, which are here studded with tall 

 thorn-bushes. Seeing a black and white bird fly from 

 the ground into a thorn-bush, I followed it up, and 

 found that it was a Great Grey Shrike. True to its 

 name, " excubito?'," it was too wary to let me get within 

 shot, and would fly from one bush to another, pausing at 

 times, and hovering in mid-air, like a Kestrel. After I 

 had followed it from tree to tree for a quarter of an hour 

 it flew across the Stour, and as there was no means 

 of crossing the river I gave up the pursuit." 



