278 LANIUS MINOR 
cup-shaped, large and solidly constructed of twigs, roots and 
grass, occasionally adorned on the outside with green leaves 
and fresh flowers, and is lined internally with seed-down, wool, 
horse-hair and feathers. The eggs, five to seven in number, 
are of a pale bluish green with some specks and blotches of 
ereenish brown (Seebohm, Brit. B. pl. 11, 1885), and measure 
about 1°O inch by 0°8. 
These Shrikes have been procured in Tropical and south 
Tropical Africa, almost invariably between the months of 
October and April, and are undoubtedly on migration or 
wintering. Petit obtained the species at Condé in Portuguese 
Congo, in December. Chapman first recorded the species from 
South Africa as not uncommon in Damaraland at certain 
seasons, and Andersson also remarks that it is very common 
there during the rains from November to April, but most leave 
the country on the return of the dry season, although he 
believed that a few remain there throughout the year. He 
also remarks: ‘“‘A great number of these birds are often found 
in a very limited space and not unfrequently on the same tree.” 
Its most southern known range is Kroonstad in the Orange 
River Colony, where Mr. Symonds obtained one example on 
March 24, and at Komatipoort in the Transvaal (Francis). 
Two specimens killed by Oates at Tati in Bechuanaland on 
November 19 are in the British Museum. Sheppard found 
it not uncommon near Beira; it was generally seen sitting on 
the stump of a dead tree picking up beetles and other insects. 
Stoehr and Neave have both met with it in Katanga and 
northern Rhodesia, and there are two examples from Nyakowa, 
north-west of Lake Nyasa, killed in March, and sent to the 
British Museum by Sir Alfred Sharpe. It is generally dis- 
tributed over German and British East Africa (Kilimanjaro, 
Sjéstedt ; Escarpment, Doherty ; and Kallima Theki, Gurney), 
while Erlanger met with it at Harar in Shoa on April 28, 
where he found it numerous but shy. 
