38 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 



birds than this species, plumaged ^iii Freiich-gicy bhick, 

 white, and chestnut, but with an unniistakeable family 

 resemblance to their sombre relative. They all have 

 similar habits, solitary and sedentary, with harsh voices 

 and a deadly giip of bill. They arc most useful birds in 

 either field or garden, and should be rigidly protected 

 for their services in destroying gi'ass-hoppers, mice, etc. 

 Those that breed with us make large open nests in trees 

 or bushes, and lay greenish-white eggs with brown 

 spots. 



The Short-billed Mini vet (Pericrocolas hredrostris), 

 figured on Plate IV (Fig. 1) is a type of a quite different 

 style of Shrike. The Minivets, often called Rajah Lai, 

 are birds of a harmless disposition only preying on hisects ; 

 their bills and feet are weak, their wings rather long, and 

 the tails decidedly so, with the centre pairs of feathers 

 nuuh the longest. They go about in parties, fluttering 

 from bough to bough, and clinging to the twigs in search 

 of insects. In most species the sexes are absolutely 

 dili'erent in colour, though both are very pretty, the males 

 being red-and-black and the females yellow-and-gi'ey. 

 The young are like the hens, but barred like other young 

 Shrikes. 



The Short-billed Mini vet is a very widely-spread and 

 common .species, being found all aloiig the Himalayas and 

 parts of the plains adjacent to them. It ranges up to 

 1U,<J(J<J feet and extends south to Karennee, Arrakan 

 and the Salweeii River. Eastern male specimens are 

 a deeper and richer red than western ones. The male is 

 the sex represented in the Plate : the hen is yellow 



