LAN1US. 317

Mr. Gammie found a nest of this species on the 17th May at
Mongfoo, near Darjeeling, at an elevation of 3500 feet. The
nest was placed in a wormwood bush, and was supported between
several slender upright shoots, to which the exterior of the nest
was in ore or less attached. The nest was a deep compact cup,
externally composed of fine twigs, scraps of roots, and stems of
herbaceous plants, intermingled with a great deal of flowering-
grass. Internally it was lined with very fine grass and moss-roots.
The caviby measured about 3 inches in diameter, and was fully
2 inches deep. The external diameter was about 5 inches, and
height 3g or thereabout.

Subsequently he sent me the following full account of the nidi-
fication of this Shrike:—

" I have found this Strike breeding abundantly in the Cinchona
reserves in May and June, at elevations of from 3000 to 4500 feet
above the sea. It affects open, cultivated places, and builds, from
6 to 20 feet from the ground, in shrubs, bamboos, or small trees.
The nest is of ten suspended between several upright shoots, to which
it is firmly attached by fibres twisted round the stems and the
ends worked into the body of the nest; sometimes against a
bamboo-stem seated on, and attached to, the bunch of twigs given
out at a node ; or in a fork of a small tree, or end of an upright cut
branch where several shoots have sprung away from under the cut
and keep the nest in position, when it has a large pad of an ever-
lasting plant or of the downy beads of a large flowering grass to
rest on—when the former material is handy it is preferred. The
nest is sometimes exposed to view, but generally is tolerably well
concealed. It is of a deep cup-shape, very compactly built of
flowering grass and stems of herbaceous plants intermixed with
fibry twigs, and lined with the small fibry-looking branchlets of
grass-panicles. Externally it measures 5 inches across by 3| inches
in depth ; internally the cavity is 3g inches in diameter by nearly
2 inches deep. Usually the eggs are either four or five in number.
On one occasion only have I seen so many as six. The coloration
is of two distinct types, but one type only is found in the same
nest. I suspect that the age of the bird has something to do with
the variation of colour in the eggs. In a nest containing four eggs
one had the majority of the spots collected on the small, instead
of the thick end as usual, and, strange to say, it was addled white.
The other three were hard-set. The parents get very much ex-
cited when their young are approached, and, as long as the intruder
is in the vicinity, keep up an incessant volley of their harsh grating
cries, at the same time stretching out their necks and jerking about
their tails violently."

Mr. J. B>. Cripps, writing from Eurreedpore in Eastern Bengal,
says :—" Excessively common and a permanent resident. Prefers
open plains interspersed with bushes, also the small bushes on road-
sides are a favourite haunt of theirs. Breeds in the district. I
took ten nests this season from the llth April to 4th June, with
from one to five eggs in each. Four nests were placed in bamboo