308 MR. O. V. APLIN ON THE DISTRIBUTION IN GREAT BRITAIN 
be seen on the hill above the lakes, which is thinly covered 
with scattered Hawthorn bushes, and abounds with their prey” 
(Mr. W. E. Beckwith’s 1 Notes on Shropshire Birds’). 
“Very common” (Mr. F. C. Rawlings’ ‘List of Birds of 
Barmouth District,’ p. 3). Mr. F. II. Birley found two pairs 
breeding south of Cader Idris, on the Montgomery borders, in the 
summer of 1885 (Zool., 1886, p. 76). 
Cardiganshire. Captain E. A. Swainson has found it rather 
common near Aberystwith (in lit.). 
Radnorshire. “Thinly distributed over this locality (north- 
west Radnorshire)” (Mr. E. H. Jones, Cwmithig, Rhayader, who 
published a list of local birds, in lit.). 
Breconshire. Captain E. A. Swainson, of The Woodlands, 
Brecon, writes that this bird is now rare, and he has not observed 
it for two years. Previous to this he had known its nest found on 
three occasions. He adds, “Judging from what some ornithological 
friends have told me, it must have been once rather common here ” 
(in lit., April, 1891). 
Mr. E. Cambridge Phillips write's from Brecon: “Common; 
four nests have been taken in one hedgerow near Brecon” (in lit., 
1891). In 18S1 Mr. Phillips wrote of it as “common,” and that 
he often observed it in the hay -fields adjoining Brecon (Zool., 1881, 
p. 402). 
Glamorgan. Mr. W. Warde Fowler writes that there is always 
one pair near a house at Swansea. 
Pembrokeshire. The Rev. Murray A. Mathew tells me that 
“ it is a scarce bird ; a few occurring in the south of the county, 
while in the north it is extremely rare, not one being seen by me 
in the eight years I was at Stone Hall” (in lit.). 
SCOTLAND. 
To Scotland the Red-backed Shrike can only be considered 
as a very occasional, if more than a chance and casual, visitor, 
although it is recorded to have bred in some instances. In the 
last edition of Yarrell’s 1 British Birds ’ the following particulars 
are given. It “has only of late years been recorded from Scotland, 
though noticed there, according to Mr. Robert Gray, so long ago as 
1817, when a pair were shot near Hawick. Mr. Arbuthnot, in 
