154 WOODCHAT. 
on both sides of the Mediterranean is abundant. Even there, 
however, it is only a visitor; arriving about the end of March, 
or early in April, and leaving again between August and October. 
Eastward, it breeds in South Russia, Turkey, Asia Minor, Palestine 
and Persia; while in winter it occurs in Arabia, and down the East 
African coast to about 5° N. lat., also on the west side in the 
Canaries, and to the Gambia and the Gold Coast. Throughout 
North Africa it is abundant in summer, arriving from the southern 
side of the Sahara in March. 
The nest, composed of a variety of materials and frequently 
adorned with the flowers of aromatic plants, is placed in the fork of 
a branch of almost any tree, without the slightest attempt at con- 
cealment. The eggs, usually 5 in number, are, as a rule, rather 
larger than those of the Red-backed Shrike, though similar in colour ; 
the exception being the red variety, which is comparatively rare : 
average measurements ‘92 by ‘68 in. In its habits and food this 
species resembles other Shrikes, though insects of various kinds, 
especially grasshoppers and beetles, appear to form a larger propor- 
tion of its diet; it is also very fond of bathing. The note usually 
heard is a harsh krah hack krah; but the male has also a low and 
rather pretty song in spring, and’shows great capacity for imitating 
the notes of other birds. 
The adult male, represented in the lower figure, has an elongated 
white spot above each nostril; forehead, lores, ear-coverts, sides of 
neck and back black; crown and nape chestnut-red ; scapulars 
conspicuously white ; wing-feathers blackish, with white bases to the 
primaries, forming a single bar ; coverts and secondaries tipped with 
buffish-white ; lower back grey; tail-coverts nearly white above, 
turning to grey below ; tail-feathers chiefly black, with white tips and 
with white outer webs and bases to the exterior pair ; under parts 
buffish-white, darker on the flanks. Length 7-1 in. ; wing 3°8 in. 
The female has all the colours less bright and the upper parts are 
tinged with rufous and buff. The young bird (the upper figure in 
the cut) is russet, streaked and mottled with darker brown and dull 
white on the upper parts, and with wide rufous margins to the 
quills ; under parts much barred with brownish ; bill yellowish-horn. 
VIREONID£.—Mr. Edwin Brown (Mosley’s Nat. Hist. of Tut- 
bury, p. 94 and p. 385, pl. 6) described and figured a male of the 
American Red-eyed ‘Flycatcher,’ Vireo olivaceus, which a Derby 
bird-catcher known as ‘Hatter Dick’ asserted that he had captured, 
with a female not preserved, at Chellaston in May 1859. [!] 
