32 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



the south-east. Has once been met with in Ireland, 

 where one was shot near Belfast in August 1878. 



As to the distribution of this bird in Great 

 Britain, see Aplin, Trans. Norfolk Nat. Soc, vol. v. 

 (1892), p. 286, and Zool., 1896, p. 70. 



In the south of England it is not nearly so 

 numerous as it used to be thirty years ago, owing 

 to the increased practice of cutting and laying the 

 tall tangled hedgerows in which it delights to nest. 

 To judge from the accounts given of the Red-backed 

 Shrike in various bird-books, it would seem to be 

 not generally known that the cock bird has " a song," 

 and that the hen occasionally assumes the male plu- 

 mage, as in the case of the female Sparrow-hawk. 



The habit of all the Shrikes to impale their prey 

 — beetles and other insects, small birds and young 

 mice — on thorns when captured explains the pro- 

 vincial names, " flusher," corruption of " flesher " 

 (German Jleischer), and "butcher-bird" commonly 

 bestowed in this country on the red-backed species. 



WOODCHAT. Lanius rufus, Gmelin (ex Brisson). 

 PL 5, fig. 7. Length, 7 in. ; wing, 3"75 in. ; tarsus, 

 nearly 1 in. 



This bird is the Lanius rufus of Brisson, 1760, 

 the name revived by Gmelin, 1788 ; auricidatus of 

 Miiller, 1776 ; pomeranus of Sparrman, 1786 ; rutilus 

 of Latham, 1790 ; riificeps of Bechstein, 1805 ; and 

 ruficollis of Shaw, " Gen. Zool.," 1809 ; all of which 

 names have been employed in turn by English and 

 Continental ornithologists. Mr. Howard Saunders, 



