552 ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



On May 15, as I was returning from the pursuit of Black- 

 cock on a shooting lying some eight miles to the west of 

 Prague, I saw a Shrike sitting on a young ash, and never 

 having here observed the Lesser Grey Shrike (Lanius minor), 

 which, according to Brehm, only frequents districts where 

 deciduous woods prevail (and one certainly could not say 

 they did so here, for there was only a sprinkling of little 

 clumps of oaks and beeches among the extensive forests of 

 pine and fir), I shot the doubtful bird, and found myself in 

 the possession of a beautifully-coloured specimen of the above 

 species. 



Early in the morning of the same day, even before three 

 o'clock, I heard for the first time this year the Corn-Crake 

 (Crex pratensis) calling in a field of young corn surrounded 

 by woods ; and a keeper, in whose observations I place the 

 fullest confidence, told me that a few days ago a whole flock of 

 small Snipe or Sandpipers appeared on a pond near Prague 

 and remained there for two days. He did not, however, 

 know what they were. The birds kept to the marshy edges 

 of the pond, and when any one approached they rose 

 together and settled again on the opposite side. To what- 

 ever species of the large family of Sandpipers they may 

 have belonged, the fact of their appearance for two days 

 in the form of a migrating flock in the height of the 

 breeding-season is very remarkable. 



On the 16th I saw the first Red-backed Shrike among some 

 detached bushes near the old fortifications of Prague. It was 

 a handsome male, and the next day there was a female at the 

 same place. 



On the 17th the first Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) appeared 

 in a garden near the town, where I also observed a single 

 Icterine Warbler, and everywhere the young of the common 

 Sparrow full-fledged. 



