50 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



and barley meal chopped i;p together, used to eject the siliceous particles 

 of the barley meal &c. iu this manner. At a meeting of the Exeter 

 Naturalists' Club held at Pynes, September 25th, 1SG3, Mr. E. Gumming 

 stated that, as an experiment, he had put a thorn bush into a cage in 

 ■which he was rearing a brood of lled-backed Shrikes. He next gave the 

 young birds a live mouse, which the}' instantly seized, and impaled alive 

 on the thorn bush, thus proving that this curious practice of the .Shrikes 

 is an inherited instinct, and not acquired by the birds' only copying -what 

 their parents do. The sun shining on the snowy breast of the male Red- 

 backed Shrike, as he -was sitting on some favourite perch, has often enabled 

 us to detect him at a considerable distance, and we have noticed that 

 these birds have their favourite stations to which they return year after 

 year. It has been stated that the female bird, dull of plumage in com- 

 parison with her mate, has sometimes, like an old hen pheasant, been 

 known to assume the bright dress of the male. 



The lied-backed Shrike is, perhaps, not quite so numerous in South 

 Devon as in the northern part of the county, but the nest is frequently 

 found around Topsham, Exmouth, Houiton, and Kingsbridge (E. A..S. E. 

 and li. P. X.), and we have watched a brood during the past summer 

 (1891) that was hatched out from a nest in an elm tree growing in a 

 hedge in our own grounds at Exmouth. The habits of the old birds are 

 very similar to those of the Spotted Elycatcher, perching on the tops of 

 posts and rails, and pouncing every now and then on a large moth, such 

 as a Large Yellow Underwing, in the lono: grass of a hayfield. The young 

 were fully fledged in July, and the parents were most assiduous in feeding 

 them long after they could fly. As they were not molested, this brood 

 frequented the same spot day after day for some weeks, disappearing about 

 August ISth. 



Woodchat. Lanius i)omeranus, Sparrman. 



An accidental visitor of very rare occurrence. The evidence relating 

 to the recorded instances in Devonshire is not satisfactory, and it has 

 only been said to have been obtained in the south-western part of the 

 county. One, however, a male in full adult plumage, was seen at Lyme- 

 Eegis, on the eastern border of Devon, June 22nd, 1S7G (' Eield/ July 

 8th, 1876). 



" Shot at Mutley by Pincombe of Devouport" (J. C. P., Xat. Hist. S. 

 Devou, p. 200). A young bird is said to have been killed at Kingsbridge 

 about the year 1852 (Zool. 1S52, p. 3474). This is reported by Mr. Charles 

 Prideaux, who states that he had in his possession an adult of this species 

 of Shrike, " killed in Somersetshire," and a young one obtained at Kings- 

 biidge. Mr. Prideaux has been dead for many years, and a part of his 

 collection is deposited in the Town Hall at Kingsbridge. A small Shrike, 

 from which the feathers have been quite denuded by moths, may represent 

 one of the above-mentioned specimens. However, Mr. Henry Mcholla 

 does not remember the occurrence of a Woodchat in his neighbourhood. 



