328
not a Shrike; no one in fact who has watched it in life can have
any clouht on this subject; but jet, except for their being more
strongly marked, its eggs have no doubt a very Shrike-like character,
at the same time that they exhibit many affinities to those of
RJiipidura allifrontata and other undoubted Plycatchers.
Mr. "W. Davison says:—"About the first week in March 1871,
I found at Ootacamund a nest of this bird placed in the fork of
one of the topmost branches of a rather tall Berleris lesclunaidtL
For the size of the bird this was an exceedingly small shallow nest,
and from its position between the fork, its size, and the materials
of which it was composed externally, might very easily have passed
unnoticed; the bird sitting on it appeared to be sitting only on a
small lump of moss and lichen, the whole of the bird's tail, and as
low down as the lower part of the breast, being visible. The nest
was composed of grass and fine roots covered externally with cob-
web and pieces of a grey lichen, and bits of moss taken apparently
from the same tree on which the nest was built; the eggs were
three in number. The tree on which this nest was built was
opposite my window, and I watched the birds building for nearly
a week; and, again, when having the nest taken, the birds sat till
the native lad I had sent up put out his hand to take the nest. I
am absolutely certain as to the identity of this nest and these eggs."
The eggs brought me by Mr. Davison, of the authenticity of
which he is positive, are very Shrike-like in their appearance;
they are rather elongated ovals, somewhat obtuse at both ends,
and entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is a pale greenish
or greyish white, and they are profusely blotched, spotted, and
streaked with darker and lighter shades of uin her-brown; in both
eggs these markings are more or less confluent along a broad
zone, which in one egg encircles the larger, in the other the smaller
end: these eggs measure 0-7 by 0-5 inch and 0'69 by 0-49 inch.
Captain Horace Terry writes from the Palani Hills :—" Pittur
Valley. I had a nest brought me which from the description of
the bird must, I think, have belonged to this species. Nest
rather a shallow cup placed in a thorny tree about ten feet from
the ground, neatly made of grass and moss, lined with fine grass
and a few feathers, covered a great deal on the_( outside with
dusky-coloured cobwebs, 2-5 inches across and 1-5 inch deep inside,
and 3*25 inches to 3*5 inches across, and 2-25 inches deep out-
side : contained five very much incubated eggs; shape and marking
exactly like those of L. canieeps, having a well-defined zone round
the larger end; size about the same or rather smaller than those of
Pratincola bieolor"
485. Hemipus capitalis (McClelland).     Tlie Brown-lacked Pied
SJiriJce.
Hemipus capitalis (McClell.}^ Hume, Cat. no. 267 a.
I must premise that to the best of my belief there is no such