540 Mr. AV. Jesse on the 



found ill gardens, avenues, or mango-groves, and 1 have 

 never seen it in low serub or dhak-jungle. This Shrike 

 was generally noticed by me singly or in pairs, but Reid 

 described it as moving about "in small parties, apparently 

 seareliing the leaves and branches of trees for insects, cater- 

 pillars, &c/' It breeds from the middle of March to the 

 end of May — possibly later. 



The nest, a felted cup made of rootlets, bits of bark, 

 cloth, string, &c., and coated over with cobwebs, is verij 

 difficult to find. The bird is extremely suspicious, and 

 cannot easily be made to betray its home. Moreover, if 

 a nest is disturbed during the building process, it is almost 

 certain to be forsaken and destroyed. For several years I 

 tried to get the eggs, but without success. In 1901, however, 

 I took three nests with my own hands: — 



March 2o. . . . Bird sittiiiir on nest with 3 fresh egofs. 



April 24 ... . ,, „ ,, 4 slightly set eggs : $ shot. 



May 25 .... ,, ,, ,, 3 newly set eggs. 



The first nest was in a neem tree, the other two were in 

 mangos. The colour of the eggs is white with a greenish 

 tinge^ thickly spotted and mottled with various siiades of 

 brown and purple. Those of the first and second nests 

 have the markings pretty evenly distributed all over, but 

 in those of the third the majority go to form dense rings 

 near the larger end. 



The note of this bird, though difficult to express in words, 

 is ])retty and mellow, and easily recognised. The name 

 given to this species by the Martiniere boys represents the 

 sound about as nearly as any word can do. 



Average of 10 Lucknow eggs "70" x "S^*^" 



Measurement of largest e^^ "Zo" X "01 " 



,, smallest egg "GG" x ■•")<*>' 



No. 490. Pericrocotus speciosus. Indian Scarlet Mi- 

 nivct. 



Sat suki kapi [H., teste Reid]. 



In the winter of 1894 Mr. John Spencc, of La .IMartiiiiere 

 College, shot a pair of birds, male and female, which he kindly 

 gave to me. I had only just arrived in India and knew nothing 



