AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 69 



old cork- and wild olive-trees. It is not unusual to 

 see a Little Owl perched on a tall thistle in broad 

 daylight in the great plains of Spain, and it is still 

 more commonly to be found in summer in the dry 

 but water-worn " barrancos " or ravines that intersect 

 these plains. 



This species is more or less common throughout 

 Europe to the south of the Baltic, and is very nume- 

 rous in Holland, from which country all my birds 

 were originally obtained. In Italy the bird-catchers 

 use the Little Owl to attract small birds to their limed 

 sticks. In captivity this Owl is most amusing from 

 its grotesque antics and its extraordinary tameness. 

 No better destroyer of cockroaches can be found than 

 one of these birds at liberty in a room infested by 

 these loathsome pests. 



22. GREAT GREY SHRIKE. 



Lanius excubitor. 



The only notice of the occurrence of this bird in 

 our county which I can find is at p. 424 of Morton's 

 ' Natural History of Northamptonshire,' before quoted. 

 He says : " The Lanius cinereus major, the Greater 

 Ash-coloured Shrieke or Butcher Bird : a very un- 

 common Bird, except it be in the Mountainous Parts 

 of the North ; and yet tho' a mountainous Bird, it 

 breeds sometimes in Northamptonshire, and particu- 

 larly in Whittlewood Forest, where 'tis called the 

 Night-Jarr. Now and then one of them is seen at 

 Winnick, in Ellinton Grounds, and in Stoke Albany 

 Park particularly in the month of August." 



This is sufficiently perplexing, on account of the 



