164 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



L. kucopterus, on the Volga. Professor Collett has also 

 recorded the hybridising of Z. excubitor and L. sibiricus in 

 Norway. 



Habits. As the Great Grey Shrike only visits England in the 

 winter, there is no opportunity of observing its nesting habits 

 in this country, and although a belief exists that in Willoughby's 

 time, towards the end of the seventeenth century, a Butcher- 

 bird, which may have been the present species, was to be 

 found in the mountainous parts of England, as for instance, 

 in the Peak of Derbyshire, there has never been any 

 authentic record of the breeding of the species in Great 

 Britain. In the parts of Europe where the Great Grey 

 Shrike nests, it is a very conspicu >us object, generally select- 

 ing a perch in the open, from whence it can keep a good 

 look out and perceive danger from a distance. So wary is it 

 that in Germany it is called the "Sentinel," and at Va'kens- 

 vaard, in Holland, the bird's prodigious power of sight is made 

 use of by the falconers when they are trapping Hawks 0:1 

 passage. Long before the eye of a ma'i can detect ihe 

 approach of a Falcon, the latt r is detected by the Shrike, 

 but it is even then some 1 ttle time before the appearance of 

 a speck on the far horizon shows the accuracy of th; Shrike's 

 vision, and enables the fowler to be ready wiih his nets and 

 his lure for the approaching bird. In many respects the 

 Shrike resembles a bird of prey, and it is even said to hover 

 in the air like a Kestrel, or to fly down a small bird, like a 

 Merlin. It h:is its so-called "larder," like other Butcher- 

 birds, and Mr. Seebohm sajs that it has probably a dozen 

 "larders" in various parts of the district haunted by it. 

 He writes : " Like many birds of prey, he has his favourite 

 feeding place, some convenient spot in a hedgerow, prob ibly 

 chosen because the footing is good, and the thorns sharp ; 

 and to this place he b.ings h's prey during the day, and there 

 an accumulation of the remains of his meals are discovered. 

 I remember finding one of these so-called ' larders ' in a 

 hedge 01 a roadside a few miles from Valkensvaard, close 

 to a gate. The thorns were very long and sharp, and the-e 

 were the dried-up remains of half-a-dozen mice which had 

 evidently been eaten except the feet, tail, and part of the skin, 



