A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



must therefore remain open to doubt, but if it was a 

 specimen of M. flava which Dr. Macaulay ?aw, that 

 would constitute a new record for the county.] 



39. Yellow Wagtail. Motacilla rait, Bonaparte. 



A summer migrant, generally distributed and 

 breeding. Common in the meadows of the Soar 

 around Leicester. I procured one (a male) close to 

 the abbey on 8 April, 1886 the earliest date for 

 forty-three years, Harley having observed it, curiously 

 enough, in the abbey grounds one day earlier in 1843. 

 It usually stays with us well into September, my latest 

 date being 27 Sept. (1887), when I saw several in 

 the meadows at Kibworth. 



Although the bird is abundant in the meadows 

 about Aylestone, and undoubtedly nests there every 

 season, it was not found until 1886, when Wilson, 

 haymaking in a field just off the road at Aylestone on 

 2 July, discovered a nest with six eggs, which I saw 

 in situ and secured for the museum. The nest, which 

 was built on the ground on the edge of a cart track, 

 was formed of grass-bents and lined with hair, and 

 contained six eggs, of a uniform drab-brown, suffused 

 with a darker shade toward the large end. Mr. W. J. 

 Horn writes in 1907 : 'This bird overlaps the grey 

 wagtail, for on 2 Oct., 1892, I saw about a dozen 

 grey wagtails and twice as many ray's wagtails, feeding 

 in the meadows near my house. In the early spring, 

 this bird is abundant in the meadows of the Welland 

 Valley, and on 19 April, 1 905, just below the Market 

 Harborough Sewage Farm, I saw scores, all males. I 

 have several times found its nest in this neighbourhood, 

 on railway embankments and, on 27 May, 1905, 

 with young by the canal side.' 



40. Tree-Pipit. Anthus trivialis, Linn. 



A summer migrant, generally distributed and breed- 

 ing. Mr. Babington (Potter, op. cit. App. p. 67) 

 wrote : ' Not very rare at Thringstone, and probably 

 found elsewhere near the forest.' Mr. Davenport 

 has found the nest near Billesdon. Mr. W. J. Horn 

 writes in 1907 : 'Favourite nesting sites are railway 

 embankments. The eggs vary very much and I 

 possess, probably, twenty varieties.' 



41. Meadow-Pipit. Anthus pratensis (Linn.). 



Locally, Moss-cheeper, Tit-Lark, Titling. 



Resident and not uncommon near Leicester, 

 probably double -brooded. Mr. G. F. Frisby 

 records its song April, 1906. Mr. W. J. Horn 

 writes in 1907 : 'Resident, but much more numer- 

 ous in this district in spring and winter, when flocks 

 of fifty or sixty are occasionally seen. It does not 

 breed in this immediate neighbourhood, although it 

 breeds lower down the Welland Valley. In suitable 

 situations I have found them breeding in colonies. 

 Upon one occasion, this bird feigned injury, when I 

 disturbed it whilst incubating. I frequently see it on 

 the Little Bowden Recreation Ground.' 



[Golden Oriole. Oriolus galbula, Linn. 



Of very doubtful occurrence, for the only note I 

 have of it is by the late Mr. Widdowson, who wrote 

 that one was seen about the railway gardens (1 Melton 

 Mowbray) some years ago.] 



42. Great Grey Shrike. Lanius excubitor, Linn. 

 Locally, Cinerous Shrike, Great Butcher-bird. 



A rare winter visitant, not remaining to breed in 



Britain. Harley recorded that he received a fine 

 specimen, wounded but alive, on 4 Dec., 1848. 

 Its discovery and capture were attributed to a flock of 

 sparrows and chaffinches drawn together by its ap- 

 pearance. Some days later (l I Dec.) he received 

 a second a fine male. Both were shot by the same 

 person at Knight Thorpe. Since then Mr. Widdow- 

 son informed me of a specimen picked up dead by 

 the gardener at Little Dalby Hall on 25 March, 

 1883. A specimen purchased for the museum, 

 apparently a female, is said to have been shot by a 

 keeper, between Syston and Queniborough, in the 

 autumn of 1882, and I am informed by Turner that 

 another was shot at Anstey some years since. 

 Mr. Ingram, who informed me that one was shot at 

 Knipton amongst fieldfares by Mr. Brewster, kindly 

 sent me a nice female specimen " in the flesh, shot at 

 Belvoir 8 February, 1885. Mr. W. A. Evans shot a 

 fine female specimen (nearly adult) in a market- 

 garden at New Parks, close to Leicester, on 23 Dec., 

 1885, and he remarked that its jerky motions 

 and general shape and colour reminded him of a 

 wagtail. This bird was brought to me for exami- 

 nation. Mr. Joseph Young, of Leicester, had two 

 brought to him alive in 1891 by bird-catchers. The 

 first was caught at Eaton on I November, and the 

 other on some allotments in Gipsy Lane on 

 9 November. The former was exhibited at a local 

 bird show, and lived for three weeks ; the other suc- 

 cumbed in three days. Both were presented to the 

 museum, and were mentioned in the field of 21 Nov., 

 1891. One shot in Park Lane, Loughborough, was 

 presented to the museum by Mr. W. Truman Tucker 

 on 13 Feb., 1891, who also presented one which 

 he shot on the wing close to his house in Park Lane, 

 Loughborough, on 1 1 Jan., 1892. (See Zoo/. 1892, 

 P- 76.) 



43. Red-Backed Shrike. Lanius collurio, Linn. 



Locally, Little Butcher-bird, Red-backed Butcher- 

 bird. 



A summer migrant, sparingly distributed, and re- 

 maining to breed. I observed a fine male perched 

 upon the dead branch of a tree in Narborough Bogs 

 on 20 June, 1885, and on 15 July, 1886, I watched 

 one for some time at Barrow-on-Soar. In 1888 I 

 saw two specimens (male and female) in the possession 

 of Mr. H. C. Woodcock, of Rearsby, who informed 

 me that they were shot in this county many years 

 ago, and were sent in the flesh to the late Mr. Wid- 

 dowson. Mr. T. Howett, of Leicester, reported a 

 specimen killed near Syston in 1 886. At Belgrave 

 on 27 May, 1886, Thomas Adcock found a nest 

 containing one egg in a hawthorn bush. He considers 

 the species rare. Mr. Davenport, who also considers 

 it rare, found a nest on 3 June, 1888, close to 

 Ashlands, Billesdon, containing five eggs. Mr. G. 

 Frisby, writing on 7 Sept., 1906, says that a 

 nest was built in a hawthorn hedge close to the 



la This specimen is undoubtedly the form known as Pallas' s 

 Great Grey Shrike, Laniut major, Pallas, and, according to most 

 authorities, should follow the present as another species. Hav- 

 ing, however, worked at this group, my examination of a 

 number of examples convinces me that L. major and L. bomcycri 

 the latter not yet recorded for Britain are practically indis- 

 tinguishable from L. excubitor, and not deserving of even tub- 

 specific rank. Since this was written, Mr. H. E. Dresser has 

 endorsed the writer's conclusions, and has stated that L. excubitor 

 and L. majar are one and the same species. 



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