64 
The Scottish Natu7'alist. 
1866, March 17th, one at Parkhill,. another at Corse; 1887, a 
nnalebird flew on board a fishing boat in Aberdeen Bay on the 
2nd of May ; 1889, a male caught with bird-lime on Aberdeen 
Links on the 7th of February." To these notes I may add that 
my friend, Miss D. Hamilton of Skene, wrote to me under date of 
December 29th, 1889: " Just a line to tell you tliat there is a. 
Great Grey Shrike here; I saw it first on December 12th, and 
since then several times, always about the lawns and garden. On 
the 17th I saw it catch a Bank Vole in a cabbage bed, and carry it 
to an apple-tree, where I found it inserted between two branches." 
VI. MORAY FIRTH. 
Charles St. John writes of this bird in his usual happy style : 
" Last winter I saw a Great x\sh-coloured Shrike, or Butcher Bird, 
in my orchard. The gardener told me that he had seeq it for some 
hours in pursuit of the small birds, and I found lying about the 
walls two or three chaffinches which had been killed and partly 
eaten in a style unlike the performance of any bird of prey that I 
am acquainted with " (" Wild Sports of the Highlands," p. 86). 
Within this area this Shrike is, comparatively, a rare bird. In 
Banffshire one was shot in February, 1859. Near Forres a Great 
Grey Shrike was shot in January, 1S60 (Zool., i860, p. 6860). 
In 1889 I examined a single-barred Grey Shrike, shot near 
Forres in February of that year. The birdstuffer who received 
this specimen, Ledingham, told me that he had only mounted 
one other specimen of this Shrike, and that twenty years earlier. 
In confirmation of this, another taxidermist, Mr. James Brown of 
Forres, wrote to me (in Lit., Oct. 21, 1889) : " I do not remem- 
ber more than two specimens of the Great Grey Shrike being 
killed in this district, the species being very rare here." He then 
instances one killed at Brodie about the ist of February, 1889, 
and another killed near Elgin some twenty years earlier. 
VII. SUTHERLAND AND CAITHNESS. 
Mr. Reid of Wick most courteously reminds me, that he has 
furnished all his local information to Messrs. Harvie-Brown and 
Buckley, whose information I quote accordingly. Our authors 
state that, in Sutherland, the species must be considered an 
