RED-BACKED SHRIK E—WOODCHAT. 
51 
of tlie county and Isle of Wight, but usually not very 
plentifully. Of late years its range has greatly extended. 
It usually departs in August, but one was shot at 
Whitchurch several years ago in the winter, in the 
company of a number of finches and small birds. 
Gilbert White considered it a rare bird, and procured 
one on May 2ist, 1768, which "might easily have escaped 
notice had not the outcries and chatterings of the white- 
throats and other small birds drawn attention to the bush 
where it was." ^ 
He mentions another shot at Selborne about the year 
There is an old story that the shrike imitates the cries 
of other birds in order to lure them to destruction, and 
when a pair nested in Kelsall's garden at Milton in 1903 
he noticed that the cries of the young bird (the only 
survivor of the brood) sounded exactly like the cries of 
a bird in pain, and might well have drawn other species 
to the spot. 
Mr. Richardson, the owner of a game-farm at Morestead, 
near Winchester, tells us that these birds were so troublesome 
in attacking the young pheasants in the year 1900 that he 
was obliged to destroy no fewer than twenty-five of the 
butcher-birds. 
58. Lanitis pomeramis, Woodchat. 
A rare accidental visitor. 
It has occurred at Christchurch in June, 1875, and 
May, 1880 (Hart). Mr. Bond obtained its eggs near 
^ Letter xx. to Pennant. Selborne. October 3rd, 1768. 
* Letter xxxix. to Pennant. Selborne. November 9th, 1773. 
