552 ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 
On May 15, as I was returning from the pursuit of Black- 
cock on a shooting lying some eight miles to the west of 
Prague, I saw a Shrike sitting on a young ash, and never 
having here observed the Lesser Grey Shrike (Lanius minor), 
which, according to Brehm, only frequents districts where 
deciduous woods prevail (and one certainly could not say 
they did so here, for there was only a sprinkling of litile 
clumps of oaks and beeches among the extensive forests of 
pine and fir), I shot the doubtful bird, and found myself in 
the possession of a beautifully-coloured specimen .of the above 
species. 
Early in the morning of the same day, even before three 
o'clock, I heard for the first time this year the Corn-Crake 
(Crea pratensis) calling in a field of young corn surrounded 
by woods ; and a keeper, in whose observations I place the 
fullest confidence, told me that a few days ago a whole flock of 
small Snipe or Sandpipers appeared on a pond near Prague 
and remained there for two days. He did not, however, 
know what they were. The birds kept to the marshy edges 
of the pond, and when any one approached they rose 
together and settled again on the opposite side. To what- 
ever species of the large family of Sandpipers they may 
have belonged, the fact of their appearance for two days 
in the form of a migrating flock in the height of the 
breeding-season is very remarkable. 
On the 16th I saw the first Red-backed Shrike among some 
detached bushes near the old fortifications of Prague. It was 
a handsome male, and the next day there was a female at the 
same place. 
On the 17th the first Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) appeared 
in a garden near the town, where I also observed a single 
Icterine Warbler, and everywhere the young of the common 
Sparrow full-fledged. 
