Great Grey Shrike. 119 



webs of caterpillars. Here the 'Masked Shrike' (Lanius 

 personatus) abounded in great profusion"; indeed, it was by far 

 the commonest bird in that part of Nubia, and as long as I 

 remained within the tropics, I must have seen twenty or thirty 

 specimens in every day's walk. But though so numerous, they 

 were most solitary, always alone, for I never saw two in 

 company, nor two upon the same bush.* 



27. GREAT GREY SHRIKE (Lanius excubitor). 



Not very frequently is this, the largest of the British shrikes, 

 seen in England, though I believe it has been noticed in this county 

 quite as often as in any other. Montagu writes of this bird under 

 the name of L. cinereus : ' It is rather a rare bird in England. 

 The only two specimens I killed were in Wilts, on Nov. 

 15th and 22nd.' Yarrell mentions Wiltshire as one of the 

 Western counties where it has been obtained. Stanley, too, 

 speaks of this as one of its favourite districts ; but, in addition to 

 these, I have notice of one killed near Devizes, about A.D. 1845, 

 and another at about the same time, shot by the keeper at 

 Erlestoke ; one in the Rev. G. Marsh's collection, taken on the road 

 between Cirencester and Malmesbury in 1837 ; another in Mr. E. 

 Sloper's collection, killed at Seend, Feb. 28th, 1840. Of later 

 years one was shot in the neighbourhood of Calne, on Dec. 22, 

 1860, fluttering in a thorn bush, and engaged in battle with two 

 wagtails, and came into the collection of Colonel Ward, then 

 living at Castle House, Calne, who communicated its capture. 

 Another, a female, was killed at Mere in 1847 ; and, within a few 

 fields of the same locality, a male was shot on November 16th, 

 1880, both of which were brought to Mr. Ernest Baker, in whose 

 possession they now are, and who kindly apprised me of their 

 occurrence. The Marlborough College Natural History Reports 

 mention one shot at Poulton, in that neighbourhood, on Nov. 20th, 

 1869. Lord Arundell tells me that it has been shot in the park 

 at Wardour Castle. Mr. Grant records specimens from Melksham 

 in 1861, from Marston, near Worton, in 1866, and from Seend 

 ' Attractions of the Nile,' vol. ii., p. 221. 



