Bailly informs ns that it -a rriv e s I Savoy i,, pairs from the 20th to the 25th of Aprtl and takes a,, ,.s
quarters at once in the places where it intends to breed and pass the summer, namely, the borders of damp
woods in the plains and on the mountains in the neighbourhood, the great trees border,ug the roads parks
and all situations clothed with copses, thorn-bushes in cultivated fields, and marshes interspersed w,th high
trees Towards the middle of May it constructs its nest in the trees, rarely among the bushes, even the
higher ones. In its actions and manners it resembles the G reat Grey Shrike, b u t,s le s s mmtrustfu1 than that
bird. At the pairing-season, when most monogamous birds quit the socety o f the,r kind to live alone,
this species assembles in small parties of five, six, or more, which pursue and peck each other reciprocally
without inflicting any injury, and, the game being over, repose all together on the branch of the same tr e
Mr Howard Saunders informs me that during his recent visit to Andaluca, he d,d not observe
province. On the other hand Lord Lilford states that it is not uncommon there, that it is “ a rare summer
visitor to the island of Corfu,” where he " obtained three specimens in May, 1858,” and says ,t ,s “ abundan
in Montenegro in August.” . .. , , ■ ,,,,.
In Mr. W. H . Simpson’s “ Ornithological Notes from Mesolonghi and Southern fEtolia, published ,n The
Ibis’ for 1880, that gentleman remarks i s s - ' i H
“ A stray pair of Blackbird and Song-Thrush, out of the flocks that frequent the delta of the Ph.dans i t
the foot o f the unsealed precipices o f Mount Varassovo in winter, may remain behind to b ree d ; but the duties
o f the sylvan chorus are performed by innumerable w a r b l e r s , w h i c h , however, prefer the bushy outskirts
and shun the depths of the forest, as does also the conspicuous La n imm im r, which, next to the Woodchat,
is the commonest Shrike of Greece.”
The food consists of insects of various orders, small birds, shrewmice, &c.
The adult male has the forehead, lores, space above and below the eye, and the ear-coverts black;
occiput, nape, and back ash-grey; wings black; a spot or speculum o f white a t the base o f the primaries;
outer tail-feather, on each side, white, the next white, with a fine line of black along the shaft, |j|jg g
white, with a large spot o f black „ear the tip, the fourth with a largér black spot, and the four middle
feathers entirely black; under surface white, with a wash o f Pose-pink on the chest and flanks; lull and feet
W The female is similar in her general colouring; but the black on the head is duller, that on the wings of
a browner tint, aud the roseate hue o f the flanks is paler. , _
The young of the year of both sexes are without the black band on the forehead, that part during the first
winter being of ad u ll ash-grey; after the spring moult the black baud and the roseate tint begin to appear.
The Plate represents a male and a female, of the size of life, on a branch of a kind o f wild Bullace,
gathered by myself a t Barton, in Bedfordshire.
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