Red-backed Shrike's egg of the variety which has the reddish, or rather
perhaps pink, tinge. There were also some eggs in a Guernsey collection
in the Museum. These were all of the more ordinary variety. There were
also two skins--a male and female--in the Museum. The bird seems rather
local in its distribution about the Island, as I never saw one about the
Vale in any of my visits, not even this year, 1878, when I was there for
two months, and had ample opportunity of observing it had it been there.
There are, however, plenty of places nearly as well suited to it in the
Vale as about the Vallon or Le Ree. I have never seen it in either of
the other Islands, though no doubt it occasionally occurs both in Sark
and Herm, if not in Alderney.

Professor Ansted includes the Red-backed Shrike in his list, and marks
it only as occurring in Guernsey. I have no evidence of any other Shrike
occurring in the Islands, though I should think the Great Grey Shrike,
_Lanius excubitor_, might be an occasional autumn or winter visitant to
the Islands; but I have never seen a specimen myself or been able to
glean any satisfactory information as to the occurrence of one, either
from the local bird-stuffers or from Mr. MacCulloch, or any of my
friends who have so kindly supplied me with notes; neither does
Professor Ansted mention it in his list.


19. SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. _Muscicapa grisola_, Linnaeus. French,
"Gobe-mouche gris."--The Spotted Flycatcher is a regular and numerous
summer visitant, generally quite as numerous in certain localities as in
England, its arrival and departure being about the same time. It occurs
also in Sark and Herm, and probably in Alderney, but I do not remember
having seen one there. In Guernsey it is perhaps a little local in its
distribution, avoiding to a great extent such places as the Vale and the