HEMIPUS. 327

possess no detailed information as to its nidifi cation, in consequence
of Lord Walden's remarks on this subject in 4 The Ibis ' of 1867. He
sajs, "Does it, then, cross the vast ranges of the Himalaya in its
northern migration ? or does it not rather find on the southern
slopes and in the valleys of those mountains all the conditions
suitable for nesting?"; and he adds in a note, "It is extremely
doubtful whether any passerine bird which frequents the plains
of India during the cooler months crosses to the north of the
snowy ranges of the Himalaya after quitting the plains to escape
the raiuy season or the intense hear of summer."

Now, it is quite certain, as I have shown in ' Lahore to Yar-
kancl/ that several of our Indian passerine birds do cross the entire
succession of Snowy llanges which divide the plains of India from
Central Asia, and it is tolerably certain from my researches and
those of numerous contributors that L. cHstatus breeds only north
of these ranges. True, Tickell gives the following account of the
nidification of this species in the plains of India : —

"Kest found in large bushes or- thickets, shallow, circular, 4
inches in diameter, rather coarsely made of line twigs and grass.
Eggs three, ordinary ; £!} by fJ-: pale rose-colour, thickly sprinkled
with blood-red spots, with a darkish livid zone at the larger end. —
June." But Tickell, though he warns us at the commencement of his
paper (Journal As. iSoc. 1848, p. 297) of the " attempts at duplicity
of which the wary oologist must take good heed," gives the egg of
the JSai'iis as plain white, and says he has seen upwards of a dozen
like this, those of the Holler as full deep Antwerp blue, those of
Cypselus palmanun as white with large spots of deep claret-brown, '
and so on, audit is quite clear that his supposed eggs and nest of
L. cristatus belonged to one of the Bulbuls.

Of more than fifty oologist s who have collected for me at differ-
ent times in hills and plains, from the Nilghiris to Huzara ou the
one side, and to ISikhim on the other, not one has ever met with a
nest of L. en-status. This is doubtless purely negative evidence,
but it is still entitled to considerable weight.

From the valleys of the Beas and the Sutlej, as also from Kumaon
and Gurhwal, these Shrikes seem to disappear entirely during the
summer, and they are then, as we also know, found breeding in
Yarkand. It is only in the latter part of the autumn that they
reappear in the former named localities, finding their way by the
commencement of the cold season to the foot of the hills.

Mr. E. Thompson, to quote one of many close observers,
remarks : — " This bird appears regularly at Huldwauee and liuin-
nugger at the foot of the Kumaon Hills during the cold weather,
confining it/self to thick hedges and deep groves of trees. Where it
goes to in summer I cannot say, it certainly does not remain in our
hills."

484. Hemipus picatus (Sykes). The BlacJe-backed Pied Shrike.
Hemipus picatus (Sykes), Jerd. H. IncL i, p. 412 ; Hume, Rough Draft

I quite agree with Mr. Gray that this bird is a Flycatcher and