164 
allen’s naturalist’s library. 
L. leucopterus, on the Volga. Professor Collett has also 
recorded the hybridising of L. excubitor and L. sibiricus in 
Norway. 
HaMts. — As the Great Grey Shrike only visits England in the 
winter, there is no opportunity of observing its nesting habils 
in this country, and all hough a belief exists that in Willoughby’s 
time, towards the end of the seventeenth century, a Butcher 
bird, which may have been the present species, was to be 
found in the mountainous parts of England, as for instance, 
in the Peak of Derbyshire, there has never been any 
authentic record of the breeding of the species in Great 
Britain. In the parts of Europe where the Great Grey 
Shrike nests, it is a very conspicuous object, generally select- 
ing a perch in the open, from whence it can keep a good 
look out and perceive danger from a distance. So wary is it 
that in Germany it is called the “Sentinel,” and at Valkens- 
vaard, in Holland, the bird’s prodigious power of sight is made 
use of by the falconers when they are trapping Hawks 01 
passage. Long before the eye of a roan can detect the 
approach of a Falcon, the latt r is detected by the Shrike, 
but it is even then some little time before the appearance of 
a speck on the far horizon shows the accuracy of thj Shrike’s 
vision, and enables the fowler to be ready with his nets and 
his lure for the approaching bird. In many respects the 
Shrike resembles a bird of prey, and it is even said to hover 
in the air like a Kestrel, or to fly down a small bird, like a 
Merlin. It has its so-called “larder,” like other Butcher- 
birds, and Mr. Secbohvn sa)s that it has probably a dozen 
“larders” in various parts of the district haunted by it. 
He writes : “ Like many birds of prey, he has his favourite 
feeding place, some convenient spot in a hedgerow, probably 
chosen because the footing is good, and the thorns sharp ; 
a id to this place he b.ings h ; s prey during the day, and there 
an accumulation of the remains of his meals are discovered. 
I remember finding one of these so-called ‘ larders ’ in a 
hedge on a roadside a few miles from Valkensvaard, close 
to a gate. The thorns were very long and sharp, and there 
were the dried-up remains of half-a-dozen mice which had 
evidently been eaten except the feet, tail, and part of the skin. 
