106 . DICTIONARY OF NAMES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



GREAT GREY SHRIKE [No. 107]. So called because it is 

 both the largest species of the genus and the larger of the 

 Grey Shrikes. The name GREAT GREY SHRIKE seems 

 to occur first in Yarrell (1843). It is the Greater Butcher 

 Bird of Willughby. The name " Shrike " occurs first in 

 Turner (1544) who remarks that he had seen the bird twice 

 only in England, but more frequent ly in Germany, and that 

 in England he found no one who knew its name except 

 Sir Francis Lovell. Newton considered the name " Shrike " 

 (A.Sax. m'c=" shrieker," der. of Mid. Eng. " scriken," to 

 shriek) probably belonged originally to the MISTLE- 

 THRUSH (see Shrile and Shreiich), but the employment of 

 the name for the Grey Shrike by Turner and also by Merrett 

 (1687) and by nearly all later writers has confirmed it in 

 usage. Turner gives a lengthy and generally accurate 

 account of this bird and notices its habit of impaling its 

 prey on thorns. Willughby remarks that this species was 

 formerly used by falconers to take small birds. Col. 

 Thornton in his list of Falcons and Hawks used in this 

 country includes "two sorts of French Pie." Yarrell 

 observes that its Latin name of excubitor, or watchman, 

 was given it " because fowlers in France fasten it close to 

 the living bird which they use as a lure. When the Shrike 

 sees the hawk it utters a shrill cry of terror and thus gives 

 notice of its enemy's approach, enabling the fowler to draw 

 the string of the net and enclose the falcon, before the 

 latter has time to carry off the bait." 



GREAT GROUSE : The CAPERCAILLIE. (Pennant.) 



GREAT HARVEST CURLEW : The CURLEW. (Norfolk.) Swain- 

 son says they are so called from their size, and because 

 the birds appear in the marshes about harvest-time. 



GREAT HEADED POKER or WIGEON : The COMMON POCHARD. 



(Provincial.) 



GREAT HORNED OWL : The EAGLE-OWL. The name occurs 

 in Willughby (1678) as " Great Horn Owl." 



GREAT NORTHERN DIVER [No. 341]. This name first 

 appears in Pennant (1766), Willughby having termed it 

 the Greatest Speckled Diver or Loon. Sibbald calls it 

 " the Goose of our country folk called the Ember Goose, 

 which is said to make its nest under the water and also 

 to hatch out its eggs there." 



GREAT OWL : The EAGLE-OWL. Montagu gives it as a pro- 

 vincial name. 



