Ill 



THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 



Lanius collurio L. 



The arrival o£ the Red-backed Shrike, which is one of the 

 last o£ our summer-immigrants, is seldom well recorded, but 

 the evidence shows that in 1906, unlike most o£ the summer 

 visitors, this species arrived mainly at the eastern end o£ the 

 south coast. 



The unusually early date of April the 13th referred only to 

 a single bird observed near Cambridge, probably a straggler 

 that had been swept on in the movements o£ other species. 



The first immigration of this species took place in the 

 south-east on May the 4th and 5th, and was followed on the 

 subsequent day by the arrival o£ a small number of birds in 

 the west. One or two o£ these birds seem to have got as far 

 as Shropshire and Yorkshire ; but the main bulk of the 

 eastern birds appear to have spread over the eastern and 

 south-eastern counties as far north as Suffolk and Cambridse, 

 while the western ones confined themselves mainly to the 

 counties immediately south of the Bristol Channel. 



There seems to have been a second arrival about May the 

 12th, along the south coast as far west as Hampshire, which 

 after reinforcing the birds in the south-east travelled west 

 and north-west to Wales ; but the evidence is so slight and 

 the records so scattered, that it is impossible to tell with 

 any certainty in what direction the birds travelled. 



In the southern counties nesting-operations had com- 

 menced by the second week in May, and eggs were reported 

 from Hampshire on the 17th and from Somerset on the 

 19th. 



At the time when these southern birds had commenced 

 to breed, a third immigration took place through Hampshire 

 on May the 23rd and 25th and was recorded from the 

 lighthouses. 



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