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 frequently 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. Scric=“ shrieker,” der. of Mid. Eng. “ scriken,” to 
shriek) probably belonged originally to the MISTLE- 
THRUSH (see Shrite and Shreitch), but the employment of 
the name for the Grey Shrike by Turner and also by Merrett 
(1667) 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 HornepD Owt: 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. 
