. Notes on the birds of Northamptonshire and neighbourhood . ighbourhood of the hawk-hut for about anhour. I heard from Mr. AV. Tomalin of the captureof a Great Grey Shrike near Northampton aboutthree weeks before December 2, 1889, and I havesome four or five other records from various parts ofthe county. 23. RED-BACKED SHRIKE. Lanius collnrio. Twenty years ago I should have been justified indescribing this bird (better known, throughout thoseparts of England in which it is found, by the name of Butcher-bird ) as exceedingly rare in our neighbour-hood, indeed till 18G0 I never even heard of it
. Notes on the birds of Northamptonshire and neighbourhood . ighbourhood of the hawk-hut for about anhour. I heard from Mr. AV. Tomalin of the captureof a Great Grey Shrike near Northampton aboutthree weeks before December 2, 1889, and I havesome four or five other records from various parts ofthe county. 23. RED-BACKED SHRIKE. Lanius collnrio. Twenty years ago I should have been justified indescribing this bird (better known, throughout thoseparts of England in which it is found, by the name of Butcher-bird ) as exceedingly rare in our neighbour-hood, indeed till 18G0 I never even heard of itsoccurrence near Lilford; since that time I haveconstantly been told of a pair or two having beenmet with in the early summer, at which time I amunfortunately almost always away from home, andnow the Butcher-bird is, though not very abundant,a regular summer visitor, and breeds annually in(mr district. Morton, in his Natural History ofNorthamptonshire, corrects an error of Willughby,who had represented the female of this bird as a A NB NEIGHB 0 URHO OD. iO. Red-laacked Sliriltes aiad I^arder. 76 THE BIRDS OF KORTHAMPTONSHIEE distinct species in his Ornithology, p. 255. Mortongives recognizable draughts of both sexes, andafter telling how he had discovered the error madeby Willughby by observing the birds in pairing-time, and by dissection, says:—Both the male andfemale of this species have been shot upon the bushes,in a bushy common south-west of Braybrook, in themonth of May. But tis a very uncommon bird withus. He calls the bird The Lesser Ash-colouredButcher-bird. I have many notices of the occurrenceof this bird in various parts of the county, but norecords, except from our own district, as to whetherit has become more abundant of late years. It is,I think, more common on light soils than on ourstiff clays, and therefore probably better known in thesouth of Northamptonshire than in our district. In many parts of England and in North Wales Ihave found the Eed-backed Shrike
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1895
