WOODCHAT.
LANIUS RUTILUS, Lath.
Lanius rutilus, Latham, Ind. Orn. i. p. 70 (1790); Macg.
iii. p. 502.
Lanius rufus, Naum. ii. p. 22; Hewitson, i. p. 72.
Lanius auriculatus, Yarr. ed. 4, i. p. 215; Dresser, iii.
p. 407.
Pie-grieche rousse, French; Rothköpfiger Würger, German;
Alcaudon, Spanish.
This bird is a rare visitor to England, though it is
common as a summer visitor to France and Germany,
and exceedingly abundant in most parts of Southern
Europe. In Spain it is perhaps as common in Anda-
lucia as the Red-backed Shrike is in the most favoured
localities in our country. I have met with it in the
open plains, where its brightly contrasted colours render
it a very conspicuous object, as it darts from the top of
a tall thistle or from a telegraph-wire to the ground in
pursuit of beetles or grasshoppers; but it is equally
frequent amongst the olive-groves, the pine-woods, and
scrub-grown hills of almost all parts of Spain south of
the great northern Sierras.
The Woodchat is a very confiding and fearless bird,