M'OODCHAT SHRIKE. 161 



In the British Museum tlicre is a specimen of the Wood- 

 chat, a young male, which formerly belonged to the museum 

 of Dr. Leach, and is labelled as having been killed in Kent. 



In a communication to the Magazine of Natural History* 

 on the British species of Shrikes, by Mr. J. D. Hoy, who 

 is devoted to the study of birds and their habits, that gen- 

 tleman mentions one instance of the Woodchat being killed 

 near Canterbury, that came to his knowledge, and another 

 killed in the neighbourhood of Swaffham in Norfolk, which 

 last bird was in the collection of the late Rev. Robert Ham- 

 mond. In a collection of birds formerly at Cambridge, 

 which belonged to the Rev. Francis Henson, were a male and 

 female Woodchat, both of which were said to have been 

 killed in Suffolk. From the communication of Joseph 

 Clarke, Esq. of Saffron Walden, I find that Mr. Adams of 

 Gorlestone in Norfolk has in his collection a Woodchat shot 

 by himself; and a few years ago, Mr. Leadbeater received a 

 specimen which had been killed in Yorkshire. Lastly, Dr. 

 Hastings, in his Illustrations of the Natural History of Wor- 

 cestershire, says, the Woodchat is stated by Mrs. Perrot to 

 have appeared in the neighbourhood of Evesham. 



In size, in most of its habits, and in its mode of feeding, 

 the Woodchat resembles the common Red-backed Shrike, 

 and, like that species, is said to imitate the voice of several 

 different small birds. Mr. Hoy says, " it differs from 

 Lanius collurio in the choice of situation for its nest, placing 

 it invariably on trees, and preferring the oak. The nest is 

 fixed in the fork of a projecting branch, and is composed on the 

 outside of sticks and wool, mixed with white moss from the 

 bodies of the trees, and lined with fine grass and wool. Eggs 

 four or five in number, rather smaller than those of the Red- 

 backed Shrike, and varying much in markings ; the ground co- 

 lour being pale blue in some, in others a dirty white, surrounded 



* Vol. iv. p. 341. 

 VOL. I. M 



