300 MR. 0. V. APLIN ON TIIE DISTRIBUTION IN GREAT BRITAIN 
1883. I observed a pair (July and August) which bred in the 
Cherwell Valley, at the foot of the hill, below Great Bourton. 
I also observed a male on the 17th July in a garden by the 
canal at Cropredy. 
1884. Mr. F. C. Aplin saw a pair near the before mentioned 
brickyard in June. 
1887. A male (one of a pair) was shot by the canal at Little 
Bourton on the 23rd June. 
1890. A pair were shot by the canal opposite Bodicote in the 
second week in July. 
1891. I observed a pair, with their young brood on the wing, 
near the before mentioned brickyard on the 31st July. 
The country seems suitable for them, as we have plenty of big 
hedgerows. I am inclined to attribute their scarcity to the nature 
of the soil and its effect on the Shrike’s favourite food — large 
insects. Our sub-soil is a ferruginous marlstone (rather rich in 
iron in places), holding a great deal of water, as much as twenty 
per cent, sometimes : rheumatism is prevalent. I am no ento- 
mologist, and cannot say whether the district yields fewer large 
beetles and bees than some others which have warmer soils, but 
I am inclined to think that this is so. I can answer for it that it 
is a very poor locality for butterflies. The Stag Beetle I have 
never known to occur here as it does in South Oxon, and the 
Cockchafer never seems to be abundant, though the Maychafer 
often swarms. In the above list of occurrences two facts may be 
noticed. One is that they all happened in the main Cherwell 
Valley, either on its lower slopes, or at the bottom, where the 
marlstone does not appear, or is a long way from the surface. The 
other is the extremely local habit of the bird as shown by the fact 
that three out of the six pairs noticed breeding were at one spot, 
a clay-pit. The rest of Oxfordshire (except the lower parts of the 
larger valleys, and the low, flat “ Otmoor ”) is either limestone or 
chalk, with some sand and gravel about Oxford. 
In the north-west, Mr. Fowler tells me there are always two 
pairs about Kingham village, and others in the district. Further 
south-west, near the Thames valley, it does not seem to bo 
common. A single bird brought to Mr. Warner in May, 1885, 
was the only instance in which he had ever met with it about 
Standlake; and Mr. Wells, of Burford, seems to consider it 
