on birds in Macedonia.



251



in the nullahs, where we may possibly find their nests later on.

One might have expected the kestrels would have scared them away

from the villages.


Now I would like to say a word about the tortoises which

roam about these hills, being especially frequent about the steep

banks of the gullies and nullahs. The largest measured nine inches

in straight line from head to tail end of shell, but measured along

the curve, it is three inches longer. The males seem slightly larger

when full grown and heavier and more massive. Their colour is

mostly black with yellow edgings to shell plates ; the females are

yellow with black edgings. When feeding undisturbed on vegeta¬

tion, frequently choosing dandelions, the long lissom neck moves

more freely with gliding movement. They make holes in the earth,

generally under ground holly, and here they were mostly hibernating

when we arrived in December. Spring begins early here and this

is their period of great activity ; during their courting I have heard

them emit sounds like a bark, usually they can only hiss, but one I

picked up uttered this sound. One staff’ officer had told me about

this, but his mess were amused and sceptical.


Tortoises are wary animals, and with reason, for they have many

enemies large and small. Eagles are said to lift them up and drop

them to break open the shells; lizards are said to dart at them and

catch them in the soft part of the neck or limb. But coming to

facts, I have observed that the larger ones, especially the males,

are infested by large flat bugs with reddish edges to body. These

fasten on to the neck, on proximate parts of limbs and at union of

skin with shell. They bury their heads in the flesh and are dis¬

lodged with great difficulty. I have noted a number of tortoises

with broken backs, sometimes due to tread of horse or timber

wheels. But in most cases there is a dent in the hinder part of the

back of shell. One day I saw near a tumulus off the Monaster road

a raven pecking away and, on riding up to the spot, saw the bird

eating the interior of a tortoise through a hole in this same situation.

I am inclined to think that ravens with their powerful bills drive in

the shell plate to batten on their victims. Ravens are very common

and find food in plenty from the carcases of beasts done to death,



