LA1HUS.	315
parent, and was sitting on the edge of the nest, also gasping
hard.
"I do not exactly gather from your notes in the 'Kough Draft'
what form the spots usually take. In my nest taken on the 12th
May all four eggs had the zone quite as distinct as the eggs of a
Fan-tailed Flycatcher. The seven eggs taken from two nests at
Khandalla, on the other hand, had not the least appearance of a
zone, but were spotted, after the manner of Sparrows' eggs. In
both the latter cases I saw the old bird fly off the nest and alight
on a tree a few yards off.
" I remember one little Shrike of this species which used to
come down every day to pick up crumbs of bread and pieces of
potatoe put out for the Sparrows. (Being a true naturalist I love
Sparrows.)
" My brother on one occasion saw one of these Shrikes trying
to catch a garden lizard—not a gecko.
" Of course you know that the young of this handsome and
brightly coloured Shrike have a plain and curiously marked plumage,
reminding one a little of the pateela Partridge. I never saw this
Shrike in Bombay."
The eggs of this, the smallest of all our Indian Shrikes, differ in
no particular, so far as shape, colour, and markings go, from those
of its larger congeners ; that is to say, for every egg of this species
an exactly similar one might be picked out from a large series of
L. lalitora or L. erythronotus; but at the same time there is no
doubt that pale-creamy and pale-brownish stone-coloured grounds
predominate more amongst the eggs of this species than in those
of the t\vo above-named. The markings are also, as a rule, more
minute and less well-defined ; indeed, in the large series I possess
there is not one which exhibits the bold sharp blotches common in
the eggs of L. lalitora^ and not uncommon in those of L. erytliro-
notus.
In length they vary from 0*75 to 0*95 inch, and in breadth from
0*62 to O71 inch ; but the average of forty-live eggs is 0-83 by
0-66 inch nearly.
475. Lauras nigriceps (Franklin).    The Blade-headed Shrike.
Lanius nigriceps (Franld.}, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 404.
Collyrio nigriceps, Frarikl., Hume, llouyh Draft N. $ E. no. 259.
I have never myself taken the eggs or nests of the Black-headed
Shrike.
Mr. E. Thompson says :—" This Shrike breeds all along the
south-western termination of the Kuinaon and Gurhwal forests, •
and is usually found in swampy, high grassy kinds. It lays in
July, August, and September, building a large cup-shaped nest,
composed of roots and fine grasses, in small trees or shrubs in low,
open grass-covered country.
" I found this the Common Shrike in. the hilly jungly tracts in