in Great Britain during the Nesting-season. 17 



Enneoctonus collurio (Boie). Red-backed Shrike. 



Provinces I.-XII. XIV. 



Subprovinces i^ 2-15, 17, 18, 20, 21-25, 28. 



Lat, 50°-55° or 56°. " English" type. Not in Ireland. 



Breeds only occasionally in Cornwall, and is apparently not 

 found in Lincolnshire. Mr. Eyton describes the Red-backed 

 Shrike as very common in Wales. Thence northwards it becomes 

 rare, nesting only occasionally in Westmoreland, Cumberland, 

 and Durham, and is not included in the Northumberland list. 



A very few instances are known of it breeding in Scotland. 

 The Rev. J. Duns has once seen a pair during the summer in 

 Berwickshire, Mr. Robert Gray tells me that a pair frequented 

 a hedge-row near Dunbar during the breeding-season of 1852; 

 and Mr. J. R. Pencaitland has ascertained that the nest has been 

 once found in Haddingtonshire. 



Obs. — The Woodchat {E. rufus) is thought to have once or 

 twice nested at Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, where Mr. H. 

 Rogers has twice taken a nest which Mr. F. Bond refers to this 

 species ; and Mr. Rogers believes that he saw the parent bird 

 about the same locality. A young bird of the year was shot, in 

 1856, in the vicinity of the spot where the nest had been taken. 



The Ash-coloured Shrike {Lanius excuhitor) is also supposed to 

 have bred in this country, from the circumstance of old birds 

 having been noticed during the summer months. In his ' British 

 Birds,^ Lewin writes, " I have seen it in Wiltshire, and have no 

 doubt of its breeding there." Yarrell mentions its occurrence 

 during summer in Essex and Northumberland. The Rev. J. 

 Duns has seen the bird in summer, in Linlithgow; and the Rev. 

 T. M. Richards informs me that he once found the nest and 

 young of the larger Butcher-bird in Somerset, and killed the old 

 birds before he was aware of their rarity. I learn from my 

 friend, the Rev. W, H. Hawker, that the nest recorded by him 

 in the ' Ibis' for 1859 (p. 330) has proved to be that of the 

 Red-backed, not the Ash-coloured, Shrike. 



MusciCAPA GRisoLA (L.). Spotted Flycatcher. 

 Provinces I.-XVII. 



N. S. VOL. I. C 



