GREAT GREY SHRIKE. 61 



LANIUS EXCUBITOR, Linnaeus. 



GREAT GREY SHRIKE. 



The Great Grey Shrike may be termed both a spring 

 and autumn visitant, though by no means common ; the 

 few specimens obtained every year occurring almost 

 invariably between the beginning of October and the 

 end of the following March. Several of these birds were 

 killed in the neighbourhood of Downham in 1847, and a 

 single specimen was shot at Carrow, near Norwich, in 

 the winter of the same year. Messrs. Gurney and 

 Fisher state that a very young bird of this species " was 

 procured near Diss, some years ago, early in the month 

 of July," but I am not aware that the nest has ever 

 been found in this county. The same authors also refer 

 to an instance of a grey shrike being netted by a bird- 

 catcher, having pounced upon the call-bird after the 

 manner of the smaller hawks, a not uncommon occur- 

 rence, I am told, with this species. With reference to 

 its carnivorous propensities, I find the following interest- 

 ing note in the " Zoologist" for 1854, from Mr. H. T. 

 Partridge, of Hockham Hall, near Thetford : — " I pro- 

 cured a great grey shrike on the 21st of December last, 



those to which I have affixed an asterisk I have been unable to 

 learn any particulars at this distance of time. Such as are still 

 existing, or of which any record remains, will be found noticed 

 under their respective headings, in other portions of this work. Mr. 

 Rising, of Horsey, who has very kindly made enquiries respecting 

 them for me, states, that, with the exception of a few lots of foreign 

 skins at the end of the catalogue, " Mrs. Miller always understood 

 from her husband they were all British hilled specimens, and that 

 the water birds, including the waders, were shot on or in the 

 immediate vicinity of Breydon water." 



