L.USIUS. 321

and was composed externally of grass-seed ears, internally of finer
grass; a very different-looking nest from any I have elsewhere
seen, but he forwarded the bird and eggs, so that there could be
no mistake.

From Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes:—" Found
numerous nests in the valleys in May and June, between 4000 and
5000 feet up."

From four to six eggs are laid, and in regard to this Shrike I
have had no reason to think that it rears more than one brood in
the year.

Major Wardlaw Earn say says, writing of Afghanistan:—"I
found a great many nests in May and June. The first (27th May)
was situated in the centre of a dense thorny creeper, and contained
six eggs, white, faintly washed with pale green, and spotted and
blotched with purplish stone-colour aud pale brown. The nest was
composed of green grass, moss, cotton-wool, thistle-down, rags,
cows' hair, mules' hair, shreds of juniper-bark, <fcc., Ģe. Other
nests were found in willows by the river-bank and in apricot-trees.
In a large orchard at Shalofyan, in the Kurrum valley, I found
three nests within a few yards of one another/'

Major C. T. Bingham writes :—" I have only found one nest of
this Shrike, which is, however, common enough both at Allahabad
and at Delhi. This nest I found on the 3rd June in the Nichol-
son gardens at Delhi. It was placed high up in the fork ot' a
babool tree, and though more straggling and loosely built was very
like that of L. lalitora; the two eggs it contained, except that they
are a trifle smaller, are very like those of L. lahtorct."

Colonel Butler has furnished me with the following note:—
" The Rufous-backed Shrike commences nidification at Mt. Aboo
about the end of May. I took a nest on the llth June containing "
five fresh eggs. It was placed in the fork of one of the outer
branches of a mango-tree about 15 feet from the ground. The
hen bird sat very close, allowing the native I sent up the tree to
put his hand almost on to her back before she moved, and then
she only flew to a bough close by, remaining there chattering and
scolding angrily the whole time the nest was being robbed. The
nest, which is coarse and somewhat large for the size of the bird,
is composed externally of dry grass-roots, twigs, rags, raw cotton,
string, and other miscellaneous articles all woven together. The
interior is neatly lined with dry grass and horsehair. The eggs,
five in number, are of a pale greenish-white colour, spotted all over
with olivaceous inky-brown spots and specks, increasing in size and
forming a zone at the large end. They vary much in shape, some
being pyriform, and others blunt and similar in shape at both ends.
I took another nest on the 19th June near the same place con-
taining five fresh eggs, similar in every respect to the one already
described, except that it was built on a thorn-tree about 10 feet
from the ground. I took a nest at Deesa on. the 8th July, 1S75,
containing four fresh eggs ; these eggs are smaller and rounder than
those from Aboo, and the blotches are larger and more distinct.

YOL. i. 21