EED-BACKED SHETKE. 43 



London, but that one or two pairs bred about Binsey and in 

 the high hedges about Horspath. At Cuddesdon, however^ Mr. 

 H. Gale sees several pairs every summer. Mr. W. W. Fowler 

 only notices one pair each year in the neighbourhood of 

 Kingham, and a single bird brought to Mr. Warner in May, 



1885, was the only instance in which he ever met with it about 

 Standlake. In the north of the county I have personally 

 only seen it on two occasions, and have heard of but few other 

 instances of its occurrence during the last few years. From 

 the extreme south of the county I have no information 

 respecting this bird, but it used to be not uncommon some 

 years ago on the Berkshire side of the Thames in the 

 neighbourhood of Reading. Nevertheless the Bed-backed 

 Shrike is known to some in the county by its common name 

 of Butcher-bird. This name it has earned by its curious habit 

 of impaling or hanging its superfluous food upon thorns, 

 forming a ' larder ' to which it resorts at convenience. This 

 hung food consists chiefly of large insects, and more rarely of 

 young birds, shrews, etc. In the larder of a pair nesting at 

 Great Bourton in 1883 I found only insects, consisting of two 

 species of bumble-bees, the Dor-beetle ( Geotrnpes vernalis), and 

 the large Ground Beetle; numerous 'castings^ found under 

 the perches usually affected by the birds consisted of remains 

 of small insects, chiefly coleopterous. Mr. W. W. Fowler 

 having observed a Bed-backed Shrike at Kingham in July, 



1886, made a careful search for pellets, and found, among other 

 things, two portions of the shrivelled skin of a Water Shrew, 

 each forming a complete ring, hung secm'ely upon thorns. 



The Woodchat Shrike [L. auriculatns) is included in the 

 History of Banhury list on the authority of Mr. Loftus with 

 the remark 'not found now.' It is extremely doubtful 

 if this species ever occurred in the county ; so far from being 

 more plentiful in England in former times it is only com- 

 paratively of late years that its claim to a place among 

 the British avifauna has been fully allowed. 



