PERICROCOTUS.	343
On this occasion the two old birds evinced signs of the greatest
anxiety, the hen remaining on the nest till the boy was close to
her, and, joined by the cock immediately she left it, the pair kept
flying from bough to bough in the greatest possible state of excite-
ment the whole time the nest was being taken, the lien actually
once or twice going on to the nest again after she had left it, when
the boy was within 3 feet of her. On examining the nest I found
that one of the branches of the fork consisted of a small rotten
stump, similar to the one den-ribed in the first nest, and in the
bottom of both nests there were three or four small black downy
feathers, intermingled with the dead L af-stems that constituted
the lining."
In his recent " Xotes on Eirds'-nesting in Kajpootana," Lieut.
H. E. Barnes writes, ^Lt The Small Minivet breeds during July and
August."
Mr. Benjamin Ait-ken writes :—" You say that the Small
Minivet lays during the latter half of June and throughout July
and August. I would therefore remark that on the llth Novem-
ber, 1871, I saw several newly-fledged young ones at Poona.
There could be no mistake about this, as I stood under the tree,
which was a small one, and saw the young ones being fed.^1'
Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark that in the Deccan it is
"common, and breeds in the rains."
The latter gentleman subsequently added the following note:—
" In July, my men found a nest with two eggs at Nulwar, Deccan.
It was built on a small branch of a tamarind-tree, 2Q feet from the
ground. The nest is similar to that described in the ^; Kough Draft'
as being found at Allyghur. The whole of the bark used on the
outer coating is that of tamarind-tree, and there are a good many
feathers and much down incorporated into the structure, inside and
out. The eggs differ considerably in colouring. In both the
ground-colour is greenish white. One is profusely speckled all
over, but more thickly at the smaller end, with brownish red and a
few purple blotches, \\hilst the other egg has the specks less
numerous but larger, and chiefly on the larger encl, with little or
no purple, and the small end almost unsullied."
Finally, Mr. Oates records that " in Lower Pegu nests of this
bird may be found from the end of April to the middle of June."
The eggs are of a rather broad oval shape, and, as is often the
case even in the typical Shrikes, very blunt at both ends. The
ground-colour is a pale delicate greenish white, and they are more
or less richly marked with bright, slightly brownish-red specks,
spots, and blotches, which, always more numerous at the large end,
have a tendency there to form a mottled irregular cap. In many
eggs, besides these primary markings, a number of small faint
patches and blotches of pale inky purple are observable, almost
exclusively at the large end. The eggs appear to be quite devoid
of gloss. I have eggs both of CopsycJnis Mtularis and TJtamnobia
cawlaiensis, strange as it may seem, closely resembling, except in
size, some types of this bird's egg; and I have one egg of Menda