286 Mr. P. J. C. McGregor on Birds observed 



from March 1903 to August 1905, may, notwithstanding 

 their meagreness, possess some interest for the readers of 

 f The Ibis/ and especially for such as may feel tempted to 

 visit those regions. 



During the whole of ray stay at Monastir the country 

 was in an abnormally disturbed condition, which rendered 

 it difficult^even with an armed escort — to carry out any 

 observations further than an hour's walk from the town, 

 while my official duties seldom afforded me leisure for more 

 than a " constitutional" either in the morning or towards 

 sundown. With the exception, therefore, of two or three 

 visits to the Kara Su marshes and a single ascent of Mount 

 Peristeri, it was impossible to devote serious attention to the 

 marsh-, mountain-, and lake-districts, while, for reasons easy 

 to appreciate, the binocular had usually to do duty for 

 the gun. 



The town of Monastir, situated at an elevation of 2027 feet, 

 and midway between the Gulf of Salonika and the Adriatic, 

 occupies the eastern entrance of the natural highway leading 

 from the extensive alluvial plain of Monastir to the lake- 

 district of Okhrid and Southern Albania. Behind it the 

 mountains rise steeply till they culminate in the rugged 

 peak of Peristeri (8304 feet), which stands sentinel over the 

 Lake o£ Presba, and to the north lies the hill-country of 

 Krushevo and Demir Hissar. The town is divided into two 

 sections by a small stream called the Dragor, which, after 

 hurrying down from its source in a corrie of Peristeri, 

 meanders across the plain amidst a sheltering growth of 

 willows and poplars to lose itself in the sluggish Kara Su 

 (Black Water). Like most Macedonian towns, Monastir 

 presents from a distance the appearance of a large village 

 embowered in greenery, and it is belted with shady avenues, 

 extensive vineyards, and market-gardens, which bear witness 

 to Bulgarian industry, as do the cornfields and pastures 

 spreading fan-like up the mountain-sides, where the stone- 

 built hamlets of Bukovo (2500 feet), Krstovo, Lakhtse 

 (24^00 feet), and Brusnik (2850 feet) nestle among their 

 cherry-orchards and groves of beech or walnut. The fields 



