310 LAiaiD^. 



found a nest in October. I was never able to satisfy myself that 

 the same pair had two broods in the year, but I scarcely think there 

 can be any doubt about the matter. I once found, like your cor- 

 respondent Mr. Blewitt, four nests in a small babool tree, and only 

 one of them occupied. This was at Poona. My brother first 

 pointed out to me that this species affects the dusty barren plain, 

 whereas L. erythronotus prefers the cool and shaded country. This 

 difference in the habits of the two birds is very observable at 

 Poona, where both species are exceedingly common. AVhere a 

 ^Mn^Zy or watered piece of countrv borders upon the open plain, 

 you may see half a dozen of each kind within an area of half a mile 

 radius, and yet ne\er find the one trespassing upon the domain of 

 the other. When you say you have never found a nest more than 

 1500 feet above the level of the sea, 1 v^ould remind you that 

 although L. lahtora never ascends the hills, it is yet very abundant 

 in the Deccan, which is 2000 feet above the sea-level. 



" I think I have written to you before that during a residence 

 of twelve years I never saw L. lahtora in Bombay." 



This Shrike is, however, essentially a plains bird, and never 

 seems to ascend the Himalayas to any elevation. 1 have never 

 myself found a nest more 1500 feet above the level of the sea. 



Typically, the eggs are of a broad o\al shape, more or less 

 pointed towards one end, of a delicate greenish-white ground, 

 pretty thickly blotched and spotted with various shades of brown 

 and purple markings, which, always most numerous towards the 

 large end, exhibit a strong tendency to form there an ill-defined 

 zone or irregular mottled cap. The variations, however, in shape, 

 size, colour, extent, and intensity of markings are very great ; and 

 yet, in the huge series before me, there is not one that an oologist 

 would not at once unhesitatingly set down as a Shrike's. In some 

 the ground-colour is a delicate pale sea-green. In some it is pale 

 stone-colour ; in others creamy, and in a few it has almost a pink 

 tinge. The mai'kings, commonly somewhat dull and ill-defined, are 

 occasionally bold and bright ; and in colour they vary through every 

 shade of yellowish, reddish, olive, and purplish brown, while sub- 

 surface-looking pale purple clouds are intermingled with the 

 darker and more defined markings. In one egg the markings may 

 be almost exclusively confined to a broad, very in-egular zone of 

 bold blotches near the large end. In others the whole surface is 

 more or less thickly dotted with blotches and spots, so closely 

 crowded towards the large end as almost wholly to obscure the 

 ground-colour there. As a rule, the markings are irregular blotches 

 of greater or less extent, but occasionally these blotches form the 

 exceptions, and the majority of the markings are mere spots and 

 specks. In some eggs the purple cloudings greatly predominate ; 

 in others scarcely a trace of tl-em is observable. Some eggs are 

 comparatively long and narrow, whik; some are pyrifortn and l)lunt 

 at both ends ; and yvi, notwilhstanding all these great differences, 

 there is a strong i'amily likeness between all tlie eggs. In size 

 they are, I think, somewhat smaller than those of L. e.vcubitor. 



