5 
usual note is Ajdck, kjdch, or schéck; his call-note kwid, kwiell, and perletsch. I have often 
heard him mix up the call-notes of the Sparrow, Goldfinch, Swallow, and other small birds, 
mixing them with his own call-note and thus making a not disagreeable song; still I have never 
heard him imitate a long song of any small bird.” 
The following interesting account of the nest is extracted from Lindermayer’s ‘ Birds of 
Greece’ :—‘“ The nest is completed about the 12th of May, and consists, without exception, of 
fresh plants of Gnaphalium dioicum, on which even leaves and flowers are to be seen. It is 
lined with plant-cotton and wool. It is placed only on olive-trees, at a medium height, almost 
always on the outermost twigs, and it lays from five to six eggs. ‘This Shrike is sometimes so 
common in Attica that I have found twenty nests on a single forenoon.” Dresser has had ample 
opportunities of observing the nidification of the present species in Styria. He usually found 
the nest placed at some height, the oak tree being usually selected for this purpose. The 
structure is of considerable size, is composed of twigs, roots, grass, &c. and is lined with wool, 
hair, and sometimes a few feathers. The eggs vary in number, from five to seven, clutches of 
both these numbers being in Mr. Dresser’s collection. Naumann informs us:—‘ The nest is 
placed in a high pollard tree, in the top of a small tree, or on large branches of a wild pear or 
crab. It is never less than ten feet from the ground, is of large size, and has the foundation 
formed of a bunch of dry roots, twigs, grass, &c., and is well lined with wool, hair, and feathers. 
Both sexes incubate for the space of about fifteen days, and feed the young with insects until 
quite large, and drive Crows, Magpies, and other birds fiercely from the neighbourhood of their 
nest.” Pastor W. Passler states as follows :—“ It always uses green grasses for its nest, employing 
comparatively few dry ones. It also makes use of woollen threads and field-flowers.” Baedeker 
remarks that the nest is heavily built, rather higher than a half globe, constructed almost entirely 
of clover-stems intermixed with feathers, and lined with grass and wild flowers, and that the 
female deposits from five to seven eggs. Dr. E. Rey, in his ‘Ornis von Halle, writes that he 
observed the first arrivals between the 24th of April and the 7th of May, and the earliest autumn 
migrants left about the 18th of August, the last being observed on the 10th of September. He 
gives the following dates of the taking of their eggs, viz. four on the 17th of May, three on the 
22nd of May, five and five on the 24th and 27th of May, five, six, and five on the 2nd and 6th of 
June, and six on the 10th of June. Ina subsequent letter he informs us that forty-five eggs of 
this species, collected in Germany, now in his collection, average in size 24:4 by 18-0, the largest 
measuring 26:0 by 19-5, and 25-5 by 19°75, and the smallest 22:0 by 17:75, and 23-0 by 16°75 
millimetres respectively. With regard to its range during the breeding-season, he states that it is 
common in Central and South-eastern Kurope, but is wanting in the extreme South-west. 
The old birds figured in the Plate are from specimens in Dresser’s collection, from Piedmont 
and Turkey. ‘The hinder figure, which represents the young in its first winter's dress, is drawn 
from one of Sharpe’s Damara specimens. 
In the preparation of the above article we have examined the following specimens :— 
E Mus. H. E. Dresser. 
a. Piedmont, May 1870 (T. Salvadori). 6, 2. Asia Minor, May 30th, 1864 (7. Robson). 
397 
