on birds in Macedonia.



25



Early in the year they fly about in clouds, and as they wheel

together the glint of gold in the bright sunlight is wonderful.


The chaffinches were in fine song, and reminded one forcibly

of home and the English summer. But on April 10th I have a note

that all chaffinches had disappeared, and none have been seen since.

In the middle of February it was my good fortune to see a haw¬

finch close by our camp on the foothill. Its general chestnut hue

is a contrast to the other finches. The short, stout bill makes it

somewhat like a miniature parrot. I noted the black “bib” and

edge of wings, and the white, short tail, as it was very tame and

esaily approached. The great brown linnet is always with us ; it,

too, has the black marking on the breast. Its droning song resembles

somewhat that of the yellow-hammer, which, by the way, I have

never seen yet in Macedonia. A bird resembling the brown linnet

in shape, but smaller, is new to me. It is evidently a linnet, but

it has two lovely patches of crimson on sides of the breast.* Green

linnets were plentiful in the winter, hut, like the chaffinch, have

gone.


As this country has more hushes than trees—due, no doubt,

to wasteful habits of the natives or to the unrest which led the Turks

to destroy trees as possible cover for their enemies—the greenfinch

is much more visible than at home, where he always seems to me to

make himself heard, and not seen, from leafy hedgerows. Only twice

have I seen a hedge-sparrow, and that was on January 1st this year

and later on February 17th. Their absence was commented upon by

Dr. Lovell Keays, who is not far away on the same front.


Two kinds of doves are common here, and very tame—the

ring-doves, which I have kept at home and knew so well. How

interesting to see them wild, to note the curious noise of their wings

—the note resembling the sound made by blowing paper against a

comb—when they alight, and of course their cooing in the trees and

on the ruined cottages. The turtle-doves came much later. They

are tame too, so that one can observe the splendid blue and black

which emblazon the sides of the neck and hear the “ turr-turr-turr ”



* [Our male British Linnet has these two patches in a wild state during the breeding

season, and the forehead is of the same rose-red. It never acquires this

lovely colouring in a cage.— Ed.]



