RED BACKED SHRIKE. 67 



THE EED BACKED SHRIKE. 

 LAN I US COLLURIO. 



IT is a somewhat singular circumstance in connection with the 

 migratory movements of this species, that in Great Britain its 

 distribution in summer should be confined to the southern half of 

 the island, seeing that it is a well-known visitant to other coun- 

 tries lying much farther north. It is found in Norway, Sweden, 

 Denmark and Russia; and, looking indeed to the fact of its being 

 generally dispersed throughout Europe, it is surprising that our 

 Scottish counties should not regularly be favoured with its pre- 

 sence. Although, however, it has not been regarded by British 

 ornithological writers as a Scottish species, it has extended its 

 flight through the eastern counties in a number of instances. As 

 far back as 1817, a male and female were shot at Caversknowe, 

 near Hawick, and preserved by Mr Heckford, curator of the Kelso 

 museum. The next occurrence I have been able to trace is that 

 of a male specimen, near Peterhead, about the year 1833, as 

 recorded by Mr Arbuthnot, in the statistical account of that 

 parish. This bird, which I have seen, is still preserved in the 

 local museum there. Another specimen killed in Caithness is 

 mentioned by the late Mr Sinclair, surgeon, Wick, in his catalogue 

 of the birds of that parish, published in the statistical account in 

 1836. Southwards of these localities this Shrike has been found 

 in Forfarshire, near Montrose (June, 1862); in Fifeshire, near 

 Cupar; a male, which is now in my own collection, having been 

 killed there in the autumn of 1861; and in Haddingtonshire, near 

 Dunbar, where a pair, male and female, were observed haunting 

 a hedgerow during the breeding season of 1856. The female was 

 shot, and afterwards exhibited by myself at a meeting of the 

 Natural History Society of Glasgow. Three years afterwards, 

 namely, in July, 1859, two specimens were procured at Oxendean, 

 near Dunse, in Berwickshire, as recorded in the proceedings of the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh, by the Rev. John Duns of Tor- 

 phichen. To all these examples I may add, that Lord Binning 

 has obligingly informed me, that he saw a male Red Backed Shrike 

 on the farm of Byrewalls, near Gordon, in Berwickshire, in the 

 autumn of 1865; and also that Mr Brown has sent me word of a 

 Sutherlandshire specimen being in the private museum at Dun- 



