LANIIDA. 149 
THE LESSER GREY SHRIKE. 
LANIUS MINOR, J. F. Gmelin. 
The Lesser Grey Shrike is an annual summer-visitor to the 
southern and central portions of Europe, and, on migration, it 
occasionally wanders to England. Early in November 1851, a 
female was killed in the Scilly Islands; in the spring of 1869 an 
adult was received by the Rev. Murray A. Mathew from Creat 
Yarmouth, where another was taken in May 1875; on September 
23rd 1876, a bird of the year, identified by the late Mr. Gatcombe, 
was taken alive near Plymouth; the Rev. M. A. Mathew has 
recorded (Zool. 1894, p. 345) the discovery of an adult, which had 
been shot at Heron Court in September 1842; and Mr. F. W. 
Frohawk states (Field, p. 839) that he identified one with binoculars 
in Mid-Kent on May rsth 1897. 
It is doubtful if the Lesser Grey Shrike has occurred in the south 
of Sweden or in Denmark; while it is distinctly rare on passage 
in Heligoland, and only less so in Holland, Belgium and the 
north of France. Eastward, it is not uncommon along the southern 
shores of the Baltic, and has even wandcred to Finland ; while in 
the south it is generally distributed over Europe as far west as the 
