604 BRITISH BIRDS. 



mark, the British Islands, and Spain. So far as is known, its only winter 

 quarters are in Africa, where it has been found in the valley of the Nile 

 and southwards as far as Damara Land. It has been suspected that a few 

 remain to breed in all parts of its winter range, even in Damara Land; but 

 such an exceptional circumstance requires absolute confirmation. Unlike 

 the Great Grey Shrike, the Lesser Grey Shrike has no very near ally, nor 

 does it seem subject to any great variation of plumage. 



The Lesser Grey Shrike is strictly a migratory bird, and is never seen 

 in Europe in winter. It arrives in Greece, according to Kriiper, about the 

 middle of April, and in Germany, according to Naumann, early in May. 

 It is consequently one of the latest summer visitors to Europe, and also 

 one of the earliest to depart in autumn, disappearing towards the end of 

 August. In both Greece and Asia Minor I occasionally met with this 

 bird ; but it was nowhere so common as either the Woodchat or the Red- 

 backed Shrike, nor did it, like the latter bird, ascend into the pine-regions. 

 It seemed also to be very rare in the forests of olives which fill many of 

 the plains. The ground it preferred was the outskirts of cultivation, 

 where trees and bushes of various kinds — small oaks, hollies, oleanders, 

 pomegranates, white and pink roses, and abundance of clematis — struggle 

 for existence amongst the broken rocks. Here and there a little patch is 

 cultivated with wheat, tobacco, or Indian corn, with a tree or two in the 

 middle (olive, almond, or walnut) ; and abundance of cleared places grown 

 over with rank vegetation attest the former presence of a dying-out 

 civilization. In these places the Lesser Grey Shrike was to be seen, 

 occasionally perched conspicuously on the top of a bush. It also frequented 

 the gardens near the villages, and is said to regale itself on the cherries, 

 figs, and miilberries which grow in the hedges that divide them from 

 each other. Its principal food is undoubtedly beetles (that swarm to an 

 incredible extent in these climates), butterflies, grasshoppers, and other 

 insects. The flight of this Shrike, like that of its congeners, is undu- 

 latory, but easy and comparatively noiseless ; and it skims through the air 

 like a Partridge for a moment or two before it alights on some perch, onto 

 which it drops with a scufEle of the wings. The song of the Lesser Grey 

 Shrike is a not unmusical chatter, something like the twitter of the 

 Swallow or Starling, but louder and mixed with some harsher notes. It 

 has a variety of notes, some very harsh, which are probably alarm-notes, 

 and others somewhat plaintive, which may be call-notes. 



This bird is said occasionally to impale insects on thorns, as most of his 

 congeners are in the habit of doing. 



The Lesser Grey Shrike breeds early in Jime. The nest is placed in 

 the thick branches of poplars or fruit-trees, at least ten feet from the 

 ground. One which I took in an olive-tree at Nymphion, east of Smyrna, 

 on the 3rd of June, contained four fresh eggs. With the exception of a 



