106 



last, the pure example of the Great Grey Shrike, also exhibited, 

 having been shot at Kirklinton last December. 



On January 12th, 1884, I spent some hours in hunting for the 

 above-mentioned bird, now the property of Mr. Ritson.t When 

 about to give up the search from stress of time, I spied something 

 very grey on the inside of a hedgerow in the Willow Hohne. I 

 walked quietly towards it, under cover at first ; when I was about 

 fifty yards from it, or less, it darted across the field, flying very low, 

 disappeared through a hedgerow, and I saw it no more. Some 

 four days later it was cleverly shot after a long stalk, for it was 

 very wild, by Mr. Raiiton, from whom it passed into the collection 

 of Mr. Ritson, for whom he was in the habit of shooting specimens. 

 Mr. Ritson most obligingly retained it in the flesh until I could 

 examine it, and gave me the body, which proved on dissection, to 

 be that of a female. The stomach was quite empty. The bird 

 weighed two ounces and half a drachm. 



On the 6th of February last, I saw another Grey Shrike, a 

 beautiful blue-grey bird, in the wood which clothes the scar at 

 Grinsdale. Mr. Raiiton two days later found a Fieldfare impaled 

 and partly eaten in the same wood ; he brought it to me, and I 

 noted with surprise that the skull was quite intact ; for the tame 

 example of which I am about to speak, invariably devoured the 

 skull first of all. However, Mr. Raiiton was never able to shoot 

 this Shrike, though he once followed it for a considerable 

 distance. 



In conclusion, let me say a few words about a caged example, 

 which was caught m Kincardineshire in November, entered my 

 possession in December, and died in January from a swelling 

 developed while I was taking country duty for an absent vicar. 

 From December 14th to 21st, this bird, a nearly mature male of 

 the Great Grey Shrike, lived partly on liver, partly on an allowance 

 of one sparrow per diem. From December 21st to 27th, I gave 

 him two birds a day. On December 28th, I found him 

 devouring a mouse, which he must have caught for himself in 



+ Since presented to the Carlisle Museam ; and figured in PI. I. of the 

 present Number. 



