LAXIUS. 321 



and was composed externally of grass- seed ears, internally of finer 

 grass ; a very different-looking nest from any I have elsewhere 

 seen, but he forwarded the bird and eggs, so that there could be 

 no mistake. 



Prom Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes : " Found 

 numerous nests in the valleys in May and June, between 4000 and 

 5000 feet up." 



From four to six eggs are laid, and in regard to this Shrike I 

 have had no reason to think that it rears more than one brood in 

 the year. 



Major Wardlaw Earn say says, writing of Afghanistan: "I 

 found a great many nests in May and June. The first (27th May) 

 was situated in the centre of a dense thorny creeper, and contained 

 six eggs, white, faintly washed with pale green, and spotted and 

 blotched with purplish stone-colour and pale brown. The nest was 

 composed of green grass, moss, cotton-wool, thistle-down, rags, 

 cows' hair, mules' hair, shreds of juniper-bark, &c., &c. Other 

 nests were found in willows by the river-bank and in apricot-trees. 

 In a large orchard at Shalofyan, in the Kurrum valley, I found 

 three nests within a few yards of one another.'' 



Major C. T. Bingharn writes : " I have only found one nest of 

 this Shrike, which is, however, common enough both at Allahabad 

 and at Delhi. This nest I found on the 3rd June in the Nichol- 

 son gardens at Delhi. It was placed high up in the fork of a 

 babool tree, and though more straggling and loosely built was very 

 like that of L. Idhtora ; the two eggs it contained, except that they 

 are a trifle smaller, are very like those of L. lalitora" 



Colonel Butler has furnished me with the following note : 

 " The Rufous-backed Shrike commences nidification at Mt. Aboo 

 about the end of May. I took a nest on the llth June containing 

 five fresh eggs. It was placed in the fork of one of the outer 

 branches of a mango-tree about 15 feet from the ground. The 

 hen bird sat very close, allowing the native I sent up the tree to 

 put his hand almost on to her back before she moved, and then 

 she only flew to a bough close by, remaining there chattering and 

 scolding angrily the whole time the nest was being robbed. The 

 nest, which is coarse and somewhat large for the size of the bird, 

 is composed externally of dry grass-roots, twigs, rags, raw cotton, 

 string, and other miscellaneous articles all woven together. The 

 interior is neatly lined with dry grass and horsehair. The eggs, 

 five in number, are. of a pale greenish-white colour, spotted all over 

 with olivaceous inky-brown spots and specks, increasing in size and 

 forming a zone at the large end. They vary much in shape, some 

 being pyriform, and others blunt and similar in shape at both ends. 

 I took another nest on the 19th June near the same place con- 

 taining five fresh eggs, similar in every respect to the one already 

 described, except that it was built on a thorn-tree about 10 feet 

 from the ground. I took a nest at Deesa on the 8th July, 1875, 

 containing four fresh eggs ; these eggs are smaller and rounder than 

 those from Aboo, and the blotches are larger and more distinct. 



YOL. i. 21 



