

THE SHRIKES. 173 



summer visitor to both of these countries, belonging neither to 

 the earliest nor to the latest birds of passage. It arrives about 

 the first of April, at least three weeks after the Swallows, whose 

 range extends into the Arctic Regions, but three weeks before 

 the Tree Warblers (Hypotais elaica and H. olivetoruiii), whose 

 range does not extend north of the basin of the Mediterranean. 

 It is a very conspicuous bird, and cannot easily be overlooked, 

 and is very common in the olive-forests. As you descend the 

 mountains, the olives in the valley look like a dense forest, 

 often extending twenty miles or more ; but when you descend 

 into them you find that the trees are planted at some distance 

 from each other, and that a considerable cultivation of vines, 

 mulberries, and sometimes Indian corn, is carried on between 

 them. But it is perhaps on the lower slopes of the hills, where 

 the trees are more stunted and the ground is less cultivated, 

 that the Woodchat is oftenest to be seen. Perched conspicu- 

 ously upon the top of a bush, or even a lofty tree, it appears 

 ever to be on the watch for the chance of pouncing down upon 

 some unwary insect that may come within its range. Its song 

 is by no means unmusical, and very gentle to proceed from 

 such raptorial jaws. It reminded me very much of the 

 twittering of a Swallow or the warble of a Starling. Some of its 

 call-notes, however, are loud and harsh enough ; and I at first 

 thought that it was imitating the notes of other birds in order to 

 attract them within reach; but inasmuch as the greater number 

 of notes it apparently imitated were of birds far too powerful 

 for it to grapple with, such cannot be the case. The first nest 

 I found in Greece was at Delphi, not very far from the ruins of 

 the Temple of Apollo. This nest contained six eggs on the 5th 

 of May. Higher than 2,000 feet above the level of the sea the 

 bird became much rarer ; and in the pine-region, 4,000 feet 

 above the sea-level, its place seemed to be entirely taken by 

 the Red-backed Shrike ; but as soon as we descended below 

 the pine-region it again became extremely common ; and we 

 found the greater number of full clutches during the last 

 fortnight of May." 



Nest. Compact and well-built, and placed in the fork of a 

 tree, generally without any attempt at concealment. In 

 Greece Mr. Seebohm found the nest almost invariably in the 

 fork of an olive-tree, and " composed prhcipa-ly of cudweed 



