144 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



one sitting on the telegraph wires at Spurn on 26th May 

 1895, and another at Everingham on 22nd May 1898. At 

 Aldborough in South Holderness Mr. T. Fetch noted one on 

 4th May 1898 ; and lastly, in 1899, an example was observed 

 on the 15th of May, near Scarborough, by Mr. W. Roberts. 

 Vernacular names of this species are obviously few ; 

 Butcher Bird is generally applied to the genus. An old 

 Yorkshire name now obsolete is " Weirangle " or " Wariangle " 

 (Cf. " Wiirgengel," Germany) i.e., " Worrying or Destroying 

 Angel " ; called also " Wiirger " or " Worrier," "Throttler," 

 Another obsolete name is Flasher or Flusher (Yorkshire, 

 Willughby), derived from the ruddy colour of its plumage, 

 or perhaps from Flesher, i.e., Butcher Bird (Swainson). 



WOODCHAT SHRIKE. 



Lanius pomeranus {Sparrmaii). 



Accidental summer visitant from central and southern Europe 



and northern Africa. 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : — 



Lanius ruftis. — Woodchat Shrike — I find only one Yorkshire speci- 

 men recorded, which was in the possession of Mr. Leadbitter. See 

 Yarrell's " British Birds." 



This species, which breeds freely on the Continent, winter- 

 ing in southern Africa, has occurred in Yorkshire — so far as 

 I have been able to ascertain — on six occasions only, and I 

 greatly regret my inability to give full particulars of them, 

 for details respecting so rare a visitant to Britain, and so 

 fine a species, would be most acceptable to all interested 

 in Yorkshire ornithology. 



W. Yarrell in the first edition of his " British Birds " 

 (vol. i., p. 161), published in 1843, stated that " A few years 

 ago Mr. Leadbitter received a specimen which had been 

 killed in Yorkshire." Professor Newton in his edition of 

 that work (1871) mentions its having been met with in 

 Yorkshire, no doubt referring to the same specimen. 



According to the late A. Roberts of Scarborough, Mr. Alwin 



