334

procured the nest and eggs early in April, and the young were
nearly fledged by the 20th of that month; they appear to come
year jifter year to particular localities to breed.

u Several nests were brought me from the neighbourhood of Kas-
hurghur both in 1864 and 1865, whereas none were seen elsewhere.
The nest is very small for the size of the bird, and the material of
which it is composed closely resembles the bird's plumage in colour.
The nest is round and very shallow, something like a Chaffinch's,
being very neatly made; diameter inside 2 inches, depth 1 inch ;
composed of grey fibres, bits of bark, grass, and the like, cemented
with spider's web. The eggs are two in number, greenish white,
spotted with brown and slate-coloured dots, which in most specimens
form a well-defined zone round the thickest part of the egg, leaving
both ends without marks. Length of the egg *75 inch ; breadth
•59 inch. This bird was not observed in Mauubhooin except during
the breeding-season/'

Mr. G-. W. Viclal, writing from the South Konkan, remarks:—
" Common, as also at Savant Vadi. Nest found with three hard-
set eggs on, the 18th February, low down in a mango-tree. Nest
a very neat compact cup of grasses and fibres, woven throughout
with spiders' webs. Eggs greyish white, with brown and inky-
purple spots."

Dr. Jerdon remarks:—" The nest has been brought to me in
August at Nellore, chiefly made of roots and lined with hair; and
the eggs, three in number, were greenish white with large brown
blotches."

Major M. IT. Coussmaker sends me the following note from
Mysore :—" I took the nest of this bird on April 16th. It was com-
posed of fine roots and fibres closely woven into a compact nest,
secured to a horizontal bough with cobweb and covered externally
with lichen to match the tree. It measured in diameter 4-1 inches
externally and 2*2 internally and *8 deep. The parent bird was
shot from the nest.

" The nest contained two eggs, white with brown spots and
markings. They were vso broken when I got them, that no reliable
measurements could be taken."

Lastly, Mr. Gates writes from Pegu :—ci Nest with three fresh
eggs on the 3rd March near Pegu."

The eggs are very Shrike-like in appearance, and many of them
are perfect miniatures of the eggs of Lanius lahtora, but some of
them have a more uniformly brown tint than any of this latter
species that I have yet met with. The ground-colour is generally
either a very pale greenish white or a creamy-stone colour, and
more or less thickly spotted and blotched with different shades of
yellowish and reddish brown; many of the markings are almost
invariably gathered into a conspicuous, but irregular and ill-defined,
zone near the large end, in which zone clouds of subsurface-looking,
pale, and dingy purple, not usually observable on any other portion
of the egg, are thickly intermingled. The texture of the shell is fine
aud close, but scarcely any gloss is ever perceptible. Occasionally