316

Southern Mirzapore, but I do not know whether it breeds there.
The cry is quite like that of L. erythronotus.

" The southern limit of Lanius nigriceps is interesting and re-
markable. It disappears after you go south-west of the Mykle
Eange, and on the Range itself it is found only near marshy
places. This Mykle Eange extends as far east as IJrnmerkuntuk,
with a spur going off north of that, and joining on with the
Kymore Eange, parts of which I explored in March last in Per-
gunnahs Agrore and Singrowlee. Down in those places this
Lanius was the Common Shrike, but south and west of Uinmer-
kuntuk all the Shrikes disappear more or less, and L. niyriceps
entirely."

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures this species breeds
in the Valley of Nepal, laying in April and May, and building in
thorny bushes, hedges, and trees, often in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of Tillages. The following are two of Mr. Hodgson's
notes :—

" Valley, May 18th.—Nest near the top of a fir of mean size,
fixed securely in the midst of several diverging branches, made
compactly of dry grasses, of which the inner ones, which consti-
tute the lining, are hard and elastic, and well fitted to preserve
the shape, which is a deep cup with an internal cavity 3'5 inches
in diameter and nearly 3 deep. It contained six eggs, niilk-and-
water white, with pale olive spots, chiefly at the large end,
measuring 0*95 by 0*68 inch.

" Jahar Powah', May 16th.—Ascent of Sheopoori, skirts of large
forests ; nest on lateral branches of a large tree made of downy
tops of plants, of moss and thick grasses strongly compacted, and
lined with fine elastic hair-like grass ; the cavity is circular, 3 inches
in diameter by more than 2 inches in depth; the whole nest is a
solid deep cup; it contained four eggs, bluish white, with grey-
brown remote spots."

Of another nest he gives the dimensions as :—external diameter
4*25 inches ; external height 3-87 ; internal diameter 2*87;, depth
of cavity 2-75. He figures it as a very compact and deep cup
resting on a horizontal fir branch between four or five upright
sprays. He states that the young are ready to fly towards the
end of June, and that it breeds only once a year.

Dr. Scully, also writing of Nepal, says :—" This Shrike breeds
on the hillsides of the valley, usually in places where there is no
tree-forest, and not uncommonly in the neighbourhood of hamlets.
Several nests were obtained in May and June; these were large
cup-shaped structures, composed of grass-roots, fibres, and fine
seed-down intermixed. The egg-cavity was circular, lined with
fine grass-stems, about 4 inches in diameter, and 2 inches
deep in the middle. The usual nuinber of eggs is five; the
ground-colour pale greenish white, boldly blotched and spotted
with olive marks in an irregular zone round the large end. A
clutch of five eggs taken on the 14th June gave the following
dimensions :—0*94 to 0*97 in length, and 0-65 to 0*7 in breadth."