1921.] Birds of Macedonia. 207 



vegetalioii, were their f;ivourite haunts. I was siiiguhirlv 

 unfortiiiiate with i-eiiaril to nests, but had noted flvini'- 

 broods — in barred juvenile [)luniaoe — bjthe 1st of September. 

 Quite a number frequented the country in the vicinity of 

 our camp, and it was not surprising that their familiar 

 habit of impaling insects on the thorns of bushes should be 

 l)rouoht to notice quite commonly. 



I fancy the Shrike's butchering habits have been pretty 

 well worked out by now, but I should like to include a tield- 

 note that describes the whole performance : — 



"12 September, noon and very hot I was lying under a 

 bivouac-sheet thrown over a short tig-tree, persuading myself 

 that 1 was in the shade, when I noticed a Shrike operating 

 only a few yards away. It was a young bird, but it had 

 already learnt the dexterous manipulation of large insects 

 and the family method of treating them. The bird caught 

 a large grasshopper, on the wing. (The grasshopper was 

 about li inches long and had bright red under-wings.) It was 

 then carried in the beak — and it looked a large bundle com- 

 pared with the size of the bird — to a tali bramble bush, 

 where, seated on the topmost bough, the Shrike p;insed for a 

 minute. Then descending to a twig about half-way down 

 the bush and on the outside, it thrust the insect, back 

 upwards, on a long slender thorn. A slight shuflBing pre- 

 ceded the impaling, and was evidently the attempt to kill 

 and to get the grasshopper into a convenient position. The 

 thorn was pushed into the middle point of the under surface 

 of" the thorax. The point penetrated about one-third of an 

 inch and thus did not protrude through the insect's back. 

 When I examined it a little later the prey was appnrently 

 quite deiid. There were no more insects on this particular 

 bush, but a search of the neigiibouring brambles revealed 

 three more plentifully-stocked larders of which large grass- 

 hoppers formed a prominent part."' 



[Sylviid.e. — The geograi)hical conditions of many parts of 

 Macedonia are unsuited to the habits of Warblers, but never- 

 theless quite a goodly number do frequent the more likely 



