LANITJS. 311

They vary in length from 0*9 to 1*17 inch, and in width from
0-75 to 0*83 inch; but the average of more than fifty eggs is 1*03
by 0-79 inch.

473. Laiiius vittatus. The Bay-baclctd Shrike.

Lanius hardwicldi (Vigors), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 405.

Lanius vittatus, Dum., Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 260.

The Bay-backed Shrike breeds throughout the plains of India
and in the Sub-Himalayan Ranges up to an elevation of fully
4000 feet.

The laying-season lasts from April to September, but the great
majority of eggs are found during the latter half of June and July;
in fact, according to my experience, the great body of the birds do
not lay until the rains set in.

The nests are placed indifferently on all kinds of trees (I have
notes of finding them on mango, plum, orange, tamarind, toon, &c.)>
never at any great elevation from the ground, and usually in small
trees, be the kind chosen what it may. Sometimes a high hedge-
row, such as our great Customs hedge, is chosen, and occasionally
a solitary caper or stunted acacia-bush.

The nests (almost invariably fixed in forks of slender boughs)
are neat, compactly and solidly built cups, the cavities being deep
and rather more than hemispherical, from 2-25 to fully 3-5 inches
in diameter, and from 1*5 to 2 inches in depth. The nest-walls
vary from 0*5 to 1*25 inch in thickness. The composition of the
nest is various. The following are brief descriptions which I have
noted from time to time:—

" Compactly woven of grass-stems and a few fine twigs, but with
more or less wool, rag, cotton, or feathers incorporated : there is
no lining.

" The nest was rather massive, externally composed of wool,
rags, cotton, thread, and feathers, and a little grass; the cavity
rather neatly lined with fine grass.

" Composed almost entirely of cobweb, with a few soft feathers,
wool, string, rags, and a few pieces of very fine twigs compactly
woven. The interior was lined with fine straw and fibrous roots."

Elsewhere I have recorded the following note on the nidification
of this species :—

" This bird, or rather birds of this species, have been laying ever
since the middle of April, but nests were then few and far be-
tween, and now in July they are common enough. The nest that
we had just found was precisely like twenty others that we had
found during the past two months. Rather deep, with a nearly
hemispherical cavity; very compactly and firmly woven of fine
grass5> rags, feathers, soft twine, wool, and a few fine twigs, the
whole entwined exteriorly with lots of cobwebs ; and the interior
cavity about 1| inch deep by 2 5 in diameter, neatly lined with very
fine grass, one or two horsehairs, shreds of string, and one or two
soft feathers. The walls were a good inch in thickness. The nest