A DILETTANTE IN THE CAUCASUS. 217 



appear dull and unnoticeable. But the equally brilliant Roller 

 is very conspicuous ; his gorgeous uniform, in so big a bird, and 

 his loud and noisy chatter like that of a magpie, render him 

 very prominent. 



Shrikes (sorokoput) are common. The Grey Shrike was an 

 unfamiliar bird to me, and when I first saw him on the wing I 

 was quite puzzled, and could not make out what this handsome 

 fellow was, with his strikingly contrasted black and white 

 plumage, until I saw them settle on the telegraph wires. There 

 are five species of Grey Shrike in the Caucasus ; two are winter 

 forms, a third is a rarity, occasionally occurring in the Eastern 

 Caucasus, and so by a process of elimination we arrive at the 

 conclusion that the birds which are common on the Georgian 

 Road must be Lanius minor, Gm. In the lower reaches of the 

 Aragva I noticed the local form of the common Butcher-bird 

 (Enneoctonus collurio kobylini, But.). The typical form occurs in 

 the steppes of the Northern Caucacus. 



The Golden Oriole is fairly common in the Transcaucasus ; I 

 heard his very cheerful and musical whistle in a garden at 

 Dushet, and at Geok Tapa, where I saw a pair mobbing a 

 Kestrel ; their brilliant plumage is lost in the blazing sunlight. 

 The Russians call them Ivolga, and are very fond of the 

 pure liquid note ; it is common in Novgorod Government, and 

 the typical form extends from the north right through the 

 Caucasus, where it ranges up to an altitude of 6500 ft. ; it has 

 even been known to nest at an altitude of 7000 ft. It is curious 

 that so hardy and widely spread a bird should be so rare a visitor 

 to our shores ; it would make a very handsome addition to our 

 list of commoner birds, but it receives the usual welcome when 

 it does take it into its head to cross the Channel. 



Kestrels are extremely common, both Tinnunculus tinnun- 

 cuius and Tinnunculus naumanni, Fleischer (= cenchris, Bog.); 

 the Russians call them pustelga, and they are practically a 

 domestic bird in the Caucasus, being as much at home among 

 the houses as sparrows, pigeons, or starlings. At Tiflis and at 

 Kislovodsk they were constantly flying round the buildings and 

 sitting preening themselves on the telephone wires ; at Tiflis a 

 pair was nesting in a gutter just over my window, and there was 

 a fine chorus from the greedy youngsters when the parents 

 Zool. 4th ser., vol. XX., June, 1916. s 



