209 
1921 ] Birds of Macedonia. 
aquatic vegetation. Beds of reed-mace usually fill the 
centre of tlie ponds. In these thick masses of reeds and in 
the half-rotten and wind-bruised “flags” growing on the 
banks the Chiffehaffs spent the winter months. There was a 
certain place near Ormanli where I could always rely on 
finding, one or more of these birds, even in the most severe 
weather in January and February. In windy weather 
they would be difficult to see and would spend the day 
creeping about the undergrowth near the ground or water. 
At the end of March they disappeared, but immigrants 
arrived very early. I infer that the birds wintering in 
Macedonia go north to breed and move before birds that 
winter farther to the south appear in their place, but as 
birds of passage only. Not seen in summer. 
Phylloscopus trochilus. Willow-Warbler. 
Cettia cetti. Cetti’s Warbler. 
Numerous in the summer. The nests were extremely 
difficult to find. I was unsuccessful in the breeding-season, 
but have no doubt that this Warbler breeds in suitable places 
between the Seres Hoad and Kopriva. A nest at Orljak was 
situated quite in the middle of a dense mass of brambles ; 
another in a tall and very thick hedge corner. Both these 
were found in the autumn, long after the birds had gone and 
the leaves fallen, although I had searched diligently for them 
in the previous May. 
Acrocephalus schcenobaenus. Sedge-Warbler. 
Sylvia borin. Garden Warbler. 
Sylvia atricapilla. Blackcap. 
Sylvia communis. Whitethroat. 
Seen 12 April ; heard singing the same evening. Found 
commonly over the country by 14 April. Breeds commonly. 
According to other observers my first date is a late one, but 
although there may have been Whitethroats in the country 
before 12 April I never saw them on the Struma plain. 
