I,ANIID.«. 



14: 



THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 



Lanius collurio, Linnaius. 



This Shrike, by far the commonest of our British species, arrives 

 in the south of England very early in May, being, as a rule, gene- 

 rally distributed during the summer throughout the wooded dis- 

 tricts of the southern and central counties, and in Wales. In 

 Norfolk, however, it appears to be decreasing ; in Lincolnshire it 

 is almost unknown ; while in Yorkshire, and northward, it is of 

 irregular occurrence, and is said to be rarer than in former years. 

 In the south-east of Scotland it has occasionally been known to 

 breed, but it is very rare in the south-west, and an exceptional 

 visitor to the north. In the Shetlands, however, Saxby says that 

 he shot a young male on October 5th 1866, and that on j^nne gth 

 1870, he saw a female Red-backed Shrike followed by three young 

 birds already tolerably strong on the wing : a remarkable experience, 

 seeing that even in the south of England eggs are hardly laid by the 

 middle of May, and require a fortnight's incubation ! In Ireland 

 the only example on record was shot on August loth 1878, near 

 Belfast. 



