Nidification of Indian Birds. 331 



ground-colour is generally a pale, delicate, greenish white, 

 sometimes tinged with grey, sometimes with yellow. The 

 markings consist of small spots and freckles of light brown, 

 underlying which are others of pale lavender-grey and reddish 

 neutral tint. As a rule these secondary marks predominate 

 and give the tone to the egg ; both kinds are fairly numerous 

 in a broad, ill-defined ring at the larger end, fewer inside the 

 ring, and even more sparse elsewhere. Eggs with a pink 

 greenish colour, reddish superior and lavender inferior mark- 

 ings, are decidedly rare, and, so far as I can remember, 1 

 have come across only two such clutches. Both these were 

 unusually boldly marked. In shape and texture the eggs 

 differ in no way from those of the other Shrikes. With 

 the exception of the two pink clutches, I have seen no 

 eggs which exhibited any gloss, and even in those it was 

 very faint. ]My eggs average 0""85xO"'7, but I have only 

 measured 20. The greatest length and breadth among these 

 was 0""89 and 0"'74 respectively, and the least either way 

 0"-8 and 0"-66. 



44. Pericrocotus Solaris. [Oates, op. cit. i. p. 485.) 

 The only nest I have seen of this Minivet was one taken 

 in a small ravine running down from the Hungrum Peak. 

 It was made of fine twigs and a few coarse grass-stems,- 

 scantily dotted outside with lichen, scraps of moss, and 

 spiders' webs — the small, comparatively, amount of these 

 adorning materials being the thing most noticeable about 

 the nest. There was no lining of any kind. It measured 

 externally 3" X 1", and internally 2"- 75 X 0"-5. 



It contained two young and an addled eg^, the latter 

 being the darkest Minivet's egg that I have ever seen. The 

 e^^ is not unlike many House-Sparrows', longer in shape 

 and with the markings decidedly longitudinal in character. 

 These markings are brown and inky brown in colour, others, 

 somewhat paler, underlying them, these last also being very 

 large. The blotches and clouds coalesce at the larger end, 

 and are numerous everywhere except at the extremity of the 

 small end. There is none of tlie reddish or purplish tint so 



SER. VII. — VOL. II. 2 B 



