207 
1921.] Birds of Macedonia. 
vegetation, were their favourite haunts. I was singularly 
unfortunate with regard to nests, but had noted flying 
broods—-in barred juvenile plumage—by the 1st of September. 
Quite a number frequented the country in the vicinity of 
our camp, and it was not surprising that their familiar 
habit of impaling insects 011 the thorns of bushes should be 
brought to notice quite commonly. 
I fancy the Shrike’s butchering habits have been pretty 
well worked out by now, but I should like to include a field- 
note that describes the whole performance :— 
“ 12 September, noon and very hot. I was lying under a 
bivouac-sheet thrown over a short fig-tree, persuading myself 
that 1 was in the shade, when I noticed a Shrike operating 
only a few yards away. It was a young bird, but it had 
already learnt the dexterous manipulation of large insects 
and the familv method of treating them. The bird caught 
a large grasshopper, on the wing. (The grasshopper was 
about llr inches long and had bright red under-wings.) It was 
then carried in the beak—and it looked a large bundle com¬ 
pared with the size of the bird—to a tall bramble bush, 
where, seated on the topmost bough, the Shrike paused for a 
minute. Then descending to a twig about half-way down 
the bush and on the outside, it thrust the insect, back 
upwards, on a long slender thorn. A slight shuffling pre¬ 
ceded the impaling, and was evidently the attempt to kill 
and to get the grasshopper into a convenient position. The 
thorn was pushed into the middle point of the under surface 
of the thorax. The point penetrated about one-third of an 
inch and thus did not protrude through the insect's back. 
When I examined it a little later the prey was apparently 
quite dead. There were no more insects on this particular 
bush, but a search of the neighbouring brambles revealed 
three more plentifully-stocked larders of which large grass¬ 
hoppers formed a prominent part." 
[Sylviid J£.—— The geographical conditions of many parts of 
Macedonia are unsuited to the habits of Warblers, but never¬ 
theless quite a goodly number do frequent the more likely 
