STATUS OF THE WOODCHAT IN GREAT BRITAIN. 349 



Worcestershire. — Mr. C. Parkinson of Worcester assumes 

 that the authority for the statement in * Yarrell, British Birds/ 

 as to the occurrence of the Woodchat in this county, is Hastings' 

 ' Illustrations of Nat. Hist.,' Worcester, 1834, pp. 62—72 : Birds. 

 Mr. Parkinson in a letter to me adds : — " In June, 1890, in the 

 Teme Valley, between Powick and Bransford, I saw an unfamiliar 

 Shrike drop down suddenly and silently over a tall hedge into a 

 dense hazel coppice. I know the red-backed species very well. 

 It was quite different in flight and extremely shy : about the 

 size of the red-backed species, very white on the under parts, and 

 a pronounced red patch on the back of the head ; a little white 

 at the base of the dark bill. I never found it again ; but an 

 examination of the ground beneath the hedge revealed a young 

 Linnet with the skull broken in. Without having had the bird 

 in my hand, I feel sure it was a male Woodchat, chiefly from the 

 peculiar manner it dropped down into the thicket, and the 

 general appearance, which was not that of the red-backed 

 species." 



Wiltshire. — One seen by Mr. Arthur H. Macpherson in 

 Savernake Forest, 6th June, 1884. It was a very brightly 

 coloured bird, and very tame (Zool. 1888, p. 429). Another said 

 to have been killed at Salisbury is mentioned in the same note. 

 The Kev. H. A. Macpherson was informed that it was shot some 

 few years before he saw it by a relative of the man who showed 

 it to him (at Beading) as an unknown bird. 



Surrey. — An adult bird of this species was seen by H. L. 

 Meyer between Hatchland and Guildford, perched on an oak 

 bough. He figures the bird in his ' Illustrations of British 

 Birds,' 1842, pi. 44. 



Kent.— One in the British Museum, a young male, formerly 

 in Leach's collection, and labelled "Kent" ('Yarrell's Brit. 

 Birds,' vol. i. p. 216). This bird is mentioned in G. R. Gray's 

 ' Catalogue of British Birds' (1863), and is probably the bird 

 which was " killed in the neighbourhood of Canterbury" (Jenyns' 

 * Manual Brit. Vert.,' p. 96). It is not enumerated, however, 

 among the specimens now in the museum in vol. viii. of the 

 Catalogue of Birds. The author of the ' Manual,' in reply to my 

 enquiries, has written to say that at this distance of time it is 

 impossible to remember his authority for the locality, his book 

 having been published in 1835. Mr. W. Oxenden Hammond of 



