THE EED-BACKED SHRIKE. 221 



this bird visits Eritain is usually between the 

 autumn and the spring, and several counties are 

 named as those in which it has been seen, and in 

 some districts of which it is often common, as 

 Surrey, Sussex, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Devon- 

 shire, Worcestershire, Cheshire, Cambridgeshire, 

 Norfolk, Yorkshire, Cumberland, Northumberland 

 and Durliam. It is supposed that the birds of this 

 species which reach us, were in the course of 

 migration to other lands, and being driven by 

 adverse winds on our coast, are content to resort 

 awhile to our fir plantations, or groves, or thickets. 

 It is a common bird in France, remaining in the 

 woods of that country all the summer, and residing 

 on the open plains during the winter season. This 

 large bold bird is about ten inches in length. It 

 builds its nest in a tree at a great height from the 

 ground, making it of grasses, moss and wool, lined 

 with hair. The eggs are of a greyish white 

 colour, spotted with brown and ash colour. The 

 croaldng, clamorous anxiety of this shrike during 

 incubation, often betrays the place of its nest. 



A writer in the Magazine of Natural History 

 remarks, that a peculiar odour proceeds from the 

 great shrike, after death, not unlike that which 



