604 BRITISH BIRDS. 
mark, the British Islands, and Spain. So far as is known, its only winter 
quarters are in Africa, where it has been found in the valley of the Nile 
and southwards as far as Damara Land. It has been suspected that a few 
remain to breed in all parts of its winter range, even in Damara Land; but 
such an exceptional circumstance requires absolute confirmation. Unlike 
the Great Grey Shrike, the Lesser Grey Shrike has no very near ally, nor 
does it seem subject to any great variation of plumage. 
The Lesser Grey Shrike is strictly a migratory bird, and is never seen 
in Europe in winter. It arrives in Greece, according to Kriiper, about the 
middle of April, and in Germany, according to Naumann, early in May. 
It is consequently one of the latest summer visitors to Europe, and also 
one of the earliest to depart in autumn, disappearing towards the end of 
August. In both Greece and Asia Minor I occasionally met with this 
bird ; but it was nowhere so common as either the Woodchat or the Red- 
backed Shrike, nor did it, like the latter bird, ascend into the pine-regions. 
It seemed also to be very rare in the forests of olives which fill many of 
the plains. The ground it preferred was the outskirts of cultivation, 
where trees and bushes of various kinds—small oaks, hollies, oleanders, 
pomegranates, white and pink roses, and abundance of clematis—struggle 
for existence amongst the broken rocks. Here and there a little patch is 
cultivated with wheat, tobacco, or Indian corn, with a tree or two in the 
middle (olive, almond, or walnut) ; and abundance of cleared places grown 
over with rank vegetation attest the former presence of a dying-out 
civilization. In these places the Lesser Grey Shrike was to be seen, 
occasionally perched conspicuously on the top ofa bush. It also frequented 
the gardens near the villages, and is said to regale itself on the cherries, 
figs, and mulberries which grow in the hedges that divide them from 
each other. Its principal food is undoubtedly beetles (that swarm to an 
incredible extent in these climates), butterflies, grasshoppers, and other 
insects. The flight of this Shrike, like that of its congeners, is undu- 
latory, but easy and comparatively noiseless ; and it skims through the air 
like a Partridge for a moment or two before it alights on some perch, onto 
which it drops with a scuffle of the wmgs. The song of the Lesser Grey 
Shrike is a not unmusical chatter, something like the twitter of the 
Swallow or Starling, but louder and mixed with some harsher notes. It 
has a variety of notes, some very harsh, which are probably alarm-notes, 
and others somewhat plaintive, which may be call-notes. 
This bird is said occasionally to impale insects on thorns, as most of his 
congeners are in the habit of doing. 
The Lesser Grey Shrike breeds early in June. The nest is placed in 
the thick branches of poplars or fruit-trees, at least ten feet from the 
ground. One which I took in an olive-tree at Nymphion, east of Smyrna, 
on the 38rd of June, contained four fresh eggs. With the exception of a 
ma a! 
