WOODCHAT. INSESSORES LAN1US. 153 



WOODCHAT. 



LANIUS RUFUS. 

 PLATE C. FIG. 1. 



Lanius rufus, Briss. Orn. 2. 147- sp. 3. 



Lanius rutilus, Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. 70. sp. 12. 



Lanius pomeranus, Gmel. Syst. 1 . 302. 33. 



Lanius minor cinerascens, Rail Syn. 19. A. 6. Will. 54. 



Le Pie grieche rousse, Buff. Ois. 1. 301 Id. PL Enl. 9. f. l.Temm. Man. 



d'Orn. 1. 146. Lesson's Man. d'Orn. 1. 126. 

 Kothhopfigen vurger, Bechst. Tasschenb. Deut. 101. Meyer, 89. 

 Woodchat, Br. Zool. 1. 21?. No. 73 Alton, 2. t. 16 Lath. Syn. 169. 17- 



Bewick's Br. Birds, ed. 1826. p. 75 ; but the figure seems doubtful, and 



more like the female or young of Lanius Collurio. 



At the time of the publication of the First Series of the Il- 

 lustrations, and the accompanying volume of letter-press, I 

 had not been able to find any well authenticated instance of 

 the capture of this species in Britain, and accordingly re- Occasional 

 frained from giving either a figure or description of the bird, 

 although it had been considered as British, in all our orni- 

 thological works and compilations on Natural History since 

 the time of WILLOUGHBY, who certainly refers to this species 

 under the title of " another sort of Butcher Bird" but with- 

 out stating from whence the described specimen was obtained. 

 I have, however, now ascertained that it has occasionally been 

 met with in England. Mr LEADBETTER, the animal preserver 

 (so well known to scientific ornithologists for his valuable 

 collection of rare birds), assures me that he once had a fresh 

 specimen brought to him, that had been killed in Yorkshire ; 

 and the Rev. R. HAMOND of Swaffham informs me of his 

 having seen a Woodchat in a hedge, which bird he followed 

 for a considerable distance, that, by repeated observation, he 

 might assure himself of not being in error as to the species. 

 BEWICK, in a late edition of his British Birds (1826), gives 

 the figure of a Shrike, killed in the county of Durham, which 

 he supposes to be the Woodchat. But his description of it 



