74 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



for some months. The late Mr. G. Hunt shot a 

 young female Grey Shrike near Tichmarsh Mill on 

 November 1, 1881, and sent it to me. Colonel L. H. 

 Irby and my son found one of these birds dead near 

 Aldwincle on November 20, 1886. My falconer re- 

 ported that whilst he was employed in an attempt to 

 catch Falcons (in the fashion alluded to above), on 

 November 11, 1889, his sentinel Shrike was visited 

 by a wild bird of this species, which, after helping 

 itself to a little of the said sentinel's food, remained 

 in the neighbourhood of the hawk-hut for about an 

 hour. I heard from Mr. W. Tomalin of the capture 

 of a Great Grey Shrike near Northampton about 

 three weeks before December 2, 1889, and I have 

 some four or five other records from various parts of 

 the county. 



23. RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 



Lanius collurio. 



Twenty years ago 1 should have been justified in 

 describing this bird (better known, throughout those 

 parts of England in which it is found, by the name of 

 " Butcher-bird ") as exceedingly rare in our neighbour- 

 hood, indeed till 1860 I never even heard of its 

 occurrence near Lilford ; since that time I have 

 constantly been told of a pair or two having been 

 met with in the early summer, at which time I am 

 unfortunately almost always away from home, and 

 now the Butcher-bird is, though not very abundant, 

 a regular summer visitor, and breeds annually in 

 our district. Morton, in his ' Natural History of 

 Northamptonshire,' corrects an error of Willughby, 

 who had represented the female of this bird as a 



