1917-] Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 641 



We are indebted to Col. Stephenson Clarke, to whom it was 

 addressed, for permission to publish it : — 



We have been bundled out of Salonika and are once more 

 en route for Egypt and I suppose Palestine ; we shall no 

 doubt get more active work, but I am very sorry to leave 

 Macedonia, a paradise for birds and flowers and the 

 country now at its best. I have been egging hard, and 

 send you a catalogue of my collection in case it interests 

 you. The birds seem to breed much the same time as they 

 do in England. The Nightingale, though it arrives early, 

 seems to breed late ; the Hoopoe arrives very early 

 (March 19) and also breeds early. I failed to get eggs, 

 as I expected them to breed in holes in trees, whereas they 

 breed here in heaps of stone on the summit of lonely hills, 

 and I found a nest with well-grown young on May 21 . Rollers 

 are very common, and breed in trees or banks ; all my nests 

 were in trees. I only came across two pairs of Golden Orioles 

 in a wide neighbourhood; they are very noisy birds and 

 their note carries a long way. Bee-eaters are fairly common, 

 but scattered. The Rose-coloured Pastor arrived on May 24; 

 the Black-headed Bunting on April 29 and by May 7 was 

 very common everywhere. The Little Bustard is common 

 and nested close to camp. We had several Corn-Buntings' 

 nests in camp. Hobbies are numerous, but had not laid. 

 I saw one or two pairs of Red-footed Falcon at the end of 

 April, but none afterwards. There were eleven nests of 

 Lesser Grey Shrike within half a mile of my tent, and three 

 others a little further off ; they seem to breed in community, 

 as I found none breeding elsewhere. I knew of one pair of 

 Woodchats. The Red-backed Shrike is very common, but 

 I failed completely to find a nest. Whitethroats swarm ; 

 1 found over twenty nests. Cuckoos are common, but I 

 found no eggs. I was defeated by the Wood-Larks and 

 Ortolans, both fairly common, and I wasted hours over 

 them. Several Spanish Sparrows were nesting, but the 

 only two possible to get at some idiots pulled down. 



SER. X. VOL. V. 2 u 



