on birds in Macedonia.



249



jackdaws which appear to replace the British sparrows. One day,

while riding through Aivatli, I stopped to watch with my pair of

field-glasses a pair of kestrels. They allowed me to come very close.

They entered a hole in the wall just under a gable end. The differ¬

ence between the two sexes is very striking. The blue and reddy-

brown of the male and buff breast with minute spots; these colours

are absent in the female, whose plumage is for most part streaked

with black on light ground. On the Akbuna Pass I watched a male

hover at fifteen paces away swoop and catch a field mouse, its

beautiful colours were again apparent. At Baldza, too, these birds

are at home in the village.


One day, at our Lembet camp, five miles N. of Salonika, I

was fortunate to be able to watch a sparrow-hawk, just above our

transport lines, dive into a flock of starlings, which, scenting danger,

attracted my attention by the way in which they opened out and

closed in upon themselves. One victim was caught in the air and

carried off.


A beautiful hawk or kite is generally to be seen flying over

the great Langaza plain. Briefly, its colours are very bright grey

with black wing primaries. It hunts over the ground flying very

low as if about to alight each moment. A name suggested to me

is Swallow-tailed kite. Another huge hawk I see on the plain, often

perched upon a post. This is a dark-coloured bird with bluey colours,

possibly a peregrine, as it is much larger than the sparrow-hawk.


Eagles are plentiful; as many as three different kinds have

been observed at the same moment soaring and circling in the air.

One appears to have drab markings on the head and back, on brown

ground. It is not so large as another which is of black and brown

colour. I was delighted to stalk one great eagle, which sat on a

naked bough of an elm tree close to Tumber on border of lake

Lougaza. I dismounted and walked by my horse on side away

from the bird, getting within thirty yards. The dark brown hue

was all that could he made out, except a light colour about the eye

and light markings of the back when it flapped off. Another eagle

is one I have admired at the Zoological Gardens, with a white head

and rufous neck. In all of them, when on the wing, the finger-like

projecting wing feathers are very distinct.



