Mr. A. Hume on Indian Ornithology. 7 



at it a little bird about a twentieth of its weight, white below, 

 smoke-coloured above, with a conspicuous white eyebrow, visible 

 plainly as it darted after the dusky giant, whose approach it 

 evidently so strongly disapproved. The flight, and the long 

 fan-shaped outspread tail, left no doubt that it was one of the 

 fan-tailed Flycatchers {Leucocerca aureola). 



The nest was built on a horizontal branch of a mango, a very 

 delicate small tumbler-like affair, scarcely •25 in. in thickness 

 anywhere, closely woven of very fine grass, and coated over its 

 whole exterior with cobwebs. The interior diameter was about 

 1"75 in., the depth about 1*125. Although the little bird re- 

 turned and sat across it, with the bill and half the head project- 

 ing in front, and the whole tail from the vent overhanging behind, 

 the nest contained no eggs. However, I took a precisely similar 

 one at Etawah on the 29th of March, containing three slightly 

 incubated eggs, which in shape were a short oval, and measured 

 •562 in. by '531 . The ground-colour was white, with many 

 exceedingly minute yellowish-brown specks, which formed near 

 the middle towards the large end a pretty broad nearly confluent 

 zone, mingled with rather larger spots of a faint greyish-brown, 

 or perhaps I ought to say, of a very pale inky hue. The white 

 ground in the neighbourhood of this zone was feebly and par- 

 tially tinged with buff; and altogether the egg shows a sort of 

 family likeness to the eggs of many of the true Shrikes, and 

 especially to those of the pretty little Lanius hardwickii^, to a 

 nest of which we next turned our attention. 



Of all our Indian Shrikes this is the smallest, liveliest, and 

 brightest-coloured. Sitting or flying, it is essentially a cheerful, 

 bright, neat little bird. 



Individuals of this species have been laying ever since the 

 middle of April ; but nests were then few and far between, 

 and now they are common enough. Each species of bird seems 

 to have its own nest-plan, and each genus or family its style of 

 architecture ; and what to me has always appeared confirmatory 

 of Mr. Darwin's views is, that representative species, in far 

 distant countries, build nests so similar in design and class of 



* [Rectins L. vittatiis. Cf. IWs, 1867, p. 220.— Ed.] 



