ORNITHOLOGIA BERCHERIA. 3815 
claws, only snapping its bill when I shewed it the food. The 
principal characteristic of the sex appears in the tips of the tail- 
feathers, which are white in the male and tawny in the female.t 
*Lanius excubitor.—Rare; a male shot on the banks of the 
Thames near Reading, Nov. 28, 1792. A female shot on the 
banks of an alder-stream near Aldermaston, Jan. 6, 1795, and a 
female shot near the Kennet at Newbury, Dec. 20, 1810; the leg 
and wing were broken, and when taken up by the fowler it darted 
its talons at him, and fixed them so close to his hands that it was 
with much difficulty extricated; immediately on which it bit its 
own injured wing in a most violent degree. In its stomach 
I found the bones and feathers of a small bird and some scales of 
fish.t From the above observations I should have been led to 
have placed them as winter visitants and living chiefly on fish; 
but the following case, which occurred within a mile of Newbury, 
5 Aug. 1810, has entirely set aside that opinion:—A trap was 
baited with currants and cherries to catch small birds, which 
were very troublesome in the garden of George Goddard, Esq., 
Pyle Hill, and a young bird of this species was caught in it, and 
kept by Mr. Goddard till 16 Dec., who informs me that the same 
day he saw six more of them in his [left incomplete]. 
L. collurio.—Rare about Newbury; very common about 
Reading. Are partial to the former breeding-place. 
Corvus corax.—Not very common; flying generally in pairs, 
and not very high. 
C. frugilegus.—Common in every part. 
C. cornix.—Not very often seen, unless on the downs. In one 
I dissected, Jan. 1794, I found many horse-beans in the stomach. 
C. monedula, C. glandarius, and C. pica.—Very frequent. 
Cuculus canorus.— Summer visitant; most assuredly heard 
March 19, 1811, near Hungerford (Lath. Syn., Supp. 2, vol. x. 
p. 184). The female has the same note as the male. In a female 
+ We should like to know whether this peculiarity has been remarked by other 
observers, and whether it is constant.—Ep. 
{ The presence of fish-scales in the stomach is very curious. Indeed we do not 
remember to have met with any recorded instance of a Shrike taking fish. Not that 
such a feat is necessarily implied by the discovery of the fish-scales, any more than 
the presence of seeds in the crop of a hawk would imply that it was of granivorous 
habits. The Shrike may possibly have killed a young Kingfisher. But we are 
rather inclined to suspect that what were mistaken for fish-scales were most probably 
the elytra or wing-cases of some beetle,—Ep, 
