608 Dr. C. B. Ticehurst on [Ibis, 



the end of March ; Mr. Bell records a nest with five eggs on 

 24 March, and I have found four lialf-feathered young on 

 13 April. I think at least three broods are reared in the 

 season ; in one instance which came under niv observation 

 the same nest was utilized for the second brood, which had 

 three young in it on 31 May, and fresh eggs may be found 

 early in June. 



This species is sulyect to very great individual variation 

 in coloration of plumage ; the rust-red of the scapulars, lower 

 back, rump, and flanks varies very much in depth of colour, 

 as does the grey of the mantle ; also the wing-spot at the 

 base of the primaries may be well-defined or absent — apart 

 from sex or age. 



Wings measure (8 males) 89-5-92-5 ; (8 females) 89- 

 91*5 mm. 



The young moult their juvenile body plumage, usually 

 the tertials, always the lesser, median, iind inner greater 

 coverts, and, I think, the central tail-feathers; they may 

 then be recognized from adults by the browner primaries 

 and primary-coverts, which are not black as in adults. 



Lanius coUurio L. 



The Red-backed Shrike is an addition to the avifauna of 

 Sind ; in September 1875, Butler found it fairly common 

 at Deesa, east of the Rann of Cutch, on autumn passage, 

 and therefore I expected it to turn up in Sind. The only 

 other Indian records arc from Gilnit. also on autumn passaoe. 



The first I obtained was an adult female on 1 October, 

 1918, at the Sewage Farm at Karachi, and it w^as the only 

 one which came under observation that year. On 8 Sep- 

 tember, 1919, I secured an adult male in some scrub-jungle 

 in the desert near Karachi, and saw several more on the 

 12th. Probably it arrives in larger numbers, or rather 

 more are induced to halt, in those autumns when there has 

 been some rain, which has enabled such plants and bushes as 

 are in the desert to put forth some signs of life — a circum- 

 stance which certainly occurs in the case of the Common 

 Whitethroat and, perhaps, all passage migrants. 



