76 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



distinct species in his ' Ornithology,' p. 255. Morton 

 gives recognizable " draughts " of both sexes, and 

 after telling how he had discovered the error made 

 by Willughby by observing the birds in pairing- 

 time, and by dissection, says : " Both the male and 

 female of this species have been shot upon the bushes, 

 in a bushy common south-west of Braybrook, in the 

 month of May. But 'tis a very uncommon bird with 

 us." He calls the bird " The Lesser Ash-coloured 

 Butcher-bird." I have many notices of the occurrence 

 of this bird in various parts of the county, but no 

 records, except from our own district, as to whether 

 it has become more abundant of late years. It is, 

 I think, more common on light soils than on our 

 stiff clays, and therefore probably better known in the 

 south of Northamptonshire than in our district. 



In many parts of England and in North Wales I 

 have found the Red-backed Shrike in some abundance, 

 especially, in my school-days, in the neighbourhood 

 of Harrow-on-the-Hill, where we often used to find 

 two or three nests on a summer's afternoon in the 

 thick and ragged fences which divided the great 

 grass-fields of that district. I understand that the 

 bird is now uncommon thereabouts, but it is gene- 

 rally a well-known species in most of the southern 

 and some of the midland counties. This Shrike 

 generally arrives, or at all events used to arrive about 

 Harrow, in the first week of May. The male is a 

 handsome and conspicuous bird, and his curious 

 chirping croak soon betrays his arrival. I have 

 watched the manner of feeding of this species very 

 minutely and very often : the male bird selects the 

 topmost shoot of a thick thorn bush, or a projecting 

 bare bough in a fence, whence he constantly darts 



