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secret of which I soon discovered. He had secured a mate, and
daily did I watch for the nest, which. T thought they would pre-
pare. Late on the evening of the 23rd June, happening to look
up at the old nest, to my surprise I found it occupied by the female,
the male the while sitting on a branch near her. Next morning on
searching the nest I found four eggs. Whether this nest was
prepared the year previous by these birds or by another pair I
cannot tell.

" That day, the day of the robbery, the female disappeared. The
male followed next day, but only to return after two or three days
and recommence with renewed energy his chattering and warbling.
This he continued daily till near the end of July, when, as before,
he suddenly ceased to sing. I then found that he had again
secured a mate, wh ether the old female or a new bride I am not
certain ; they soon set a.bout making a nest on a neighbouring tree,
very cunningly, as I thought, selected; and now the young birds
reared are nearly full-fledged. An old nest, evidently of last year's
.make, was brought ine the other day with five eggs, but the lining,
as by the way was done in the one in the garden, had been wholly
removed and new grass and klins substituted."

Major C. T. Bingham writes:—" Breeds both at Allahabad and
at Delhi in May, June, and July. At the former place I never got
the eggs, but have seen some that were taken; but at Delhi I found
numbers of their nests in June and July, and one in May. It
makes a much softer nest than either of the two above-mentioned
Shrikes. One nest I took on the 15th June was composed wholly
of tow, but generally they have an outer foundation of twigs, and
are lined with tow, bits of cotton, human hair, or rags. Some eggs
are a yellow-white, with very faint marks, others are miniatures
of the eggs of L. lahtora.

"Five is the greatest number I have found in one nest."

Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note of this bird's breeding
in the neighbourhood of Find Dadan Khan and Katas in the Salt
B,auge:—

"Lays from the commencement of May to the middle of June.
Eggs three or four in number; shape varies from ovato-pyriforrn. to
blunt ovato-pyriforrn, and measuring from 0-73 to O87 inch in
length and from 0'55 to 0'65* inch in breadth. Colour, same as
L. eiythronotus, also creamy or yellowish white, spotted with darker.
Nest compact, in forks of thorny trees ; outside fibrous stalks,
bound with silk or spider-web, and covered with lichens or cocoons,
imitating a weathered structure ; inside lined with fine grass and
vegetable down."

Colonel C. IT. T. Marshall, writing from Murree, says:—
"These little Shrikes breed in the hills, as well as the plains,
up to 5000 feet high."

* I think that there must be some error in these dimensions, for mine are
taken from, forty-five specimens, the largest and smallest, out of some hundreds
of eggs.—A. 0. H.