1 68 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



Eange in Great Britain. A summer visitor, occurring over the 

 greater part of England and Walts, but of irregular occurrence 

 in the no; them counties and in Eastern Scotland. The records 

 of its having bred in the latter kingdom are apparently net 

 authentic. The late Dr. Saxby records his having seen in 

 Shetland a female bird, with three young birds able to fly well, 

 on the Qth of June, 1870. This has been commented upon 

 by the author of the excellent " Manual of British Birds ' as 

 being extraordinary, if a fact, " seeing that even in the south of 

 England eggs are hardly laid by the middle of May, and 

 require a fortnight's incubation." Mr. O. V. Aplin, however, 

 who has written a careful account of the distribution of the 

 Red backed Shrike in Great Britain, suggests that Saxby was 

 too careful an observer to have made a mistake, and that the 

 month of "July" was probably intended. A misprint of this 

 kind is very possible, as Saxby's work was published after his 

 death. In Ireland only one instance of the b'rd's occurrence 

 has been noted, near Belfast, in August, 1878. 



Mr. Aplin sums up its distribution in England as follows : 

 "One may almost say that lat. 53 marks off the country south 

 of which the Red-backed Shrike is a common summer migrant ; 

 but a boundary-line drawn here would have, of course, to be 

 deflected in places. Turning to the south-west we find the 

 species rare in Pembrokeshire, Cornwall, and South-west 

 Devon. Possibly 45 W. long, nv'ght be laid down as a 

 western boundary, beyond which the bird ceases to be a 

 regular and common visitor, but as in the case of its northern 

 confines no very strictly defined marches can be prescribed." 



Range outside the British Islands. Generally distributed through- 

 out Europe, as far as 64 N. lat., but is very rare as a breeding 

 bird in the countries of the Mediterranean, being found only in 

 the mountainous parts of Greece, Asia Minor, and Palestine, 

 and thence through Northern Persia to Central Asia, as far as 

 the Altai Mountains. The principal winter home of the species 

 appears to be Southern Africa, and it doubtless migrates by 

 way of the Nile Valley and East Africa to its winter quarters. 

 It has even been said to breed during its absence from Europe, 

 but we think that there is some mistake with regard to this 

 assertion. Mr. F. J. Jackson, however, noticed this species 



