Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/131

118 Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Worcestershire, and Cheshire; and in one or two instances, in the north of Ireland. North of London it has been killed in Hertfordshire, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Yorkshire, Cumberland, Northumberland, and Durham. Sir W. Jardine speaks of it as a rare bird in Scotland, a few instances only of its capture in the south of that kingdom having come to his knowledge. It is spread over the continent, however, from Lapland to Spain and Italy. Its appearance with us, as in the south of Europe, is in the winter months; once or twice only it has been observed in England in summer, probably through some accidental circumstance; and there is no reason to believe it ever breeds with us. Mr. Rennie, in the "Architecture of Birds," speaks of its nest as common in Kent, but this is probably a mistake. Its winter residence with us is not so infrequent a thing, but that the bird has obtained a recognition among the common people, and numerous local names attest their familiarity with it. Thus it is known by the appellations of Butcher-bird, Mattagass, Mountain Magpie, Murdering Pie, Shreek, and Shrike; and by the ancient British it was named Cigydd Mawr.

We have alluded to the interesting analogy between the Shrikes and the Falcons; nor is this so recondite as to have been remarked only by the observant man of science. In the days of falconry the species before us was actually supposed to be a degenerate sort of hawk, as appears from the curious notices of it in the books of that age. In "The Booke of Falconrie or Hawkinge" (London, 1611), we find "the Sparow-