30 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



p. 231); but it is usually a winter visitant to the 

 south of England, and to Ireland. It has been 

 known to breed in Cardiganshire for several years 

 {Field, Jan. 21, 1880). In the summer of 1893 I 

 saw several nests in Roxburghshire. The Lowlands 

 of Scotland were in that year overrun with a plague 

 of field-voles, and there was a marked increase in 

 the number of Short-eared Owls over the affected 

 area, while the nests almost invariably contained 

 more than the average number of eggs. 



These birds being migratory, it is not unusual 

 to find an assemblage of them on their arrival in 

 October. Several such cases are noticed in Mathew 

 and D'Urban's " Birds of Devon," where flocks of 

 six, twelve, and even twenty are mentioned. Messrs. 

 Sheppard and Whitear, writing of the appearance of 

 these birds in Norfolk, remark: "They arrive in flocks 

 of from ten to twenty, and frequent heaths ; in which 

 respect they differ from the long-eared species, which 

 is fond of the gloom of fir plantations." 



Oeder II. PASSERES^ 

 Fam. LANIID^ 



GREAT GREY SHRIKE. Lanius excuhitor, Linnaeus. 

 PL 5, fig. 6. Length, 9 in.; wing, 4-5 in.; tarsus, 1 in. 



The specific name excuhitor (i.e. the sentinel) 

 was bestowed by Linnaeus from having observed 

 in 1734 that the Dutch falconers made use of this 



1 See Newton's " Dictionary of Birds,"' s.v. Passeres, p. 697. 



