318 



clumps from 9 to 30 feet high ; one 40 feet from the ground on a 

 casuarina-tree, one 20 feet up in a but-tree, and the rest in babool- 

 trees at from 6 to 15 feet high from the ground. There is no 

 attempt at concealment. The nest is a deep cup fixed in a fork, 

 and is made of grasses with a deal of the downy tops of the same 

 for an outside lining ; this peculiarity at once distinguishes the 

 nest of this species. The description given by Mr. Hodgson of a 

 nest found by him on the 16th May at Jahar Powah, in ' Nests 

 and Eggs,' p. 172, correctly describes the nests I have found. 

 This species imitates the call of several kinds of small birds, as 

 Sparrows, King-Crows, &c., and I have often been deceived by it." 



The eggs of this species, of which, thanks to Mr. Gammie, I now 

 possess a noble series, vary very much in shape and size. Typically 

 they are very broad ovals, a little compressed towards one end, but 

 moderately elongated ovals are not uncommon. The shell is very 

 fine and smooth, and often has a more or less perceptible gloss ; in 

 no case, however, very pronounced. 



There are two distinct types of colouring. In the one, the ground- 

 colour is a delicate very pale green or greenish white, in some few 

 pale, still faintly greenish, stone-colour ; and the markings consist 

 as a rule of specks and spots of brownish olive, mostly gathered 

 into a broad zone about the large end, intermingled with specks and 

 spots of pale inky purple. In some eggs the whole of the mark- 

 ings are very pale and washed-out, but in the majority the brownish- 

 olive or olive-brown spots, as the case may be, are rather bright, 

 especially in the zone. In the other type (and out of 42 eggs, 12 

 belong to this type) the ground-colour varies from pinky white to a 

 warm salmon-pink, and the markings, distributed and arranged as 

 in the first type, are a rather dull red and pale purple. In fact 

 the two types differ as markedly as do those of Dicrunis ater 

 and though I have as yet received none such, I doubt not that with a 

 couple of hundred esjgs before one intermediate varieties, as in the 

 case of D. ater, would be found to exist as it is, two more dif- 

 ferent looking eggs than the two types of this species could hardly 

 be conceived. I may add that in eggs of both types it sometimes, 

 though very rarely, happens that the zone is round the small end. 



In length they vary from 0'82 to 1-01, and in breadth from 0'68 

 to 079 ; but the average of forty-two eggs measured is 0-92 by 0'75. 



476. Lanius erythronotus (Vigors). The Rufous-backed Shrike. 

 Lanius erythronotus ( Via.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 402. 

 Collyrio erythronotus, Vigors, Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no 257 

 Collyrio caniceps * (Blyth), Hume, Rough 'Draft N. $ E. no. 257 bis.' 



Lanius erythronotus. 



^ The Rufous-backed Shrike lays from March to August ; the 

 first half of this period being that in which the majority of these 



* Mr. Hume may probably still consider L. caniceps separable from L. ery- 

 thronot'us. I therefore keep the notes on the two races distinct as they appeared 

 in the ' Eough Draft,' merely adding a few later notes. ED. 



