53 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



or moderate-sized tree, the various carounders, capers, 

 plums, and acacias being those most commonly selected. 



" As a rule it builds a new nest every year, but it 

 not infrequently only repairs one that has served it an 

 the previous season, and even at times takes possession 

 of those of other species. 



" The nest is composed of very various materials, so 

 much so that it is difficult to generalise in regard to 

 them. I have found them built entirely of grass-roots, 

 with much sheep's wool, lined with hair and feathers, 

 or solidly woven of silky vegetable fibre, mostly that 

 of the putsun (ffibi^n< cinnabinus) , in which were 

 incorporated little pieces of rag and strips of the bark 

 of the wild plum (Zizyphus jujuba) ; but I think that 

 most commonly thorny twigs, coarse grass, and grass- 

 roots form the foody of the nest, while the cavity is 

 lined with feathers, hair, soft grass, and the like. 



" Generally the nests are very compact and solid, 6 

 or 7 inches in, diameter, and the egg-cavity 3 to 4 in 

 diameter, and 2 to 2 in depth, but I 'have come across 

 very loosely built and straggling ones. 



" They have at times two broods in the year (but I 

 do not think that this is always t'he case), and lay 

 from three to six eggs, four or five 'being the usual 

 number." 



Dr. Russ does not mention this species ; but the 

 London Zoological Society purchased an example in 

 November, 1890. 



ilr. E. G. B. Meade-Waldo says (Tli& Avicultural 

 Magazine, x.s., Vol. III., p. 45): "I nave repeatedly 

 reared the young of Grey Shrikes, notably Lanius 

 ftlf/t rii n*ls, L. dealbatus, and L. hoemitecicurus, and 

 find them most docile, affectionate, and interesting. I 

 fancy they require a good deal of room, or at any rate 

 a certain amount of liberty, and one I had in England 

 used to fly at liberty for hours and hunt for himself ; 

 he would, however, come a quarter of a mile to a certain 

 whistle." 



BAY-BACKED SHRIKE (Laiiiu* riUntus). 



Above 'grey-whitish, deeper grey on neck which 

 shades off into deep chestnut or maroon on the mantle 

 and scapulars ; wings black, the least coverts with 

 oroad grey borders ; basal half of primaries pure white ; 

 secondaries with narrow whitish tips ; four central tail- 

 feathers black tipped with white, the remainder also 

 white at the base, increasing in extent outwardly, the 

 outermost feather being almost entirely white ; a broad 

 frontal-band passing into a streak enclosing the eye 

 and continued to tlie nape, black ; cheeks and throat 

 very pale huffish ; body yellow 'white, more or less 

 buff, paler in the centre; flanks more or less chestnut. 

 The female is thus described by Dr. Gadow : "Head 

 ashy grey, shading off into dull rufous on the back and 

 scapulars ; upper tail-coverts ashy grey ; tail dull 

 brown, the feathers edged and tipped with rufous buff, 

 the tips broader on the outer feathers, the outermost 

 pair entirely pale rufous buff ; quills blackish, rather 

 broadly edged with sandy rufous, nearly obsolete on the 

 primaries, which have the same white speculum as the 

 male ; no black frontal band ; forehead whitish, the 

 lores tipped with dusky brown ; ear-coverts dull brown ; 

 cheeks and under surface of body creamy white, washed 

 with rufous on the flanks." According to this author's 

 measurements the female has a shorter wiing and tail 

 than the male. Hab., Indian Peninsula, extending 

 westward into Afghanistan and Baluchistan. 



Jerdpn ("Birds of India," Vol. I., p. 405) says of 

 this bird: "It frequents low thorny jungle, but is 

 also found in groves, gardens, hedgerows, etc. It has 

 the usual harsh cry of its tribe, but can also utter some 

 very pleasing notes. I never found its nest myself, and 

 it retires from the more open parts of the Deccan to 



breed. Theobald obtained the nest, which was a com- 

 pact structure, placed in the fork of a thorny tree, made 

 of fibres, silk, spiders' web, lichens, cocoons, etc., and 

 lined inside with down. This was in May and June." 



In the second edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs '* 

 we read : 



" Tlie Bay-backed Shrike breeds throughout the plains- 

 of India and in the Sub-Himalayan Ranges up to an 

 elevation of fully 4,000 feet, 



" The laying-season lasts from April to September, 

 but the great majority of eggs are found during the 

 latter half of June and July ; in fact, according to my 

 experience, the great body of the birds do not lay until 

 the rains set in. 



"The nests are placed indifferently on all kinds of 

 trees (I have notes of finding them on mango, plum, 

 orange, tamarind, toon, etc), never at any great eleva- 

 tion from the ground, and usually in small trees, be 

 the kind chosen what it may. Sometimes a high hedge- 

 row, such as our great Customs hedge, is chosen, and 

 occasionally a solitary caper or stunted acacia-bush. 



" The nests (almost invariably fixed in forks of slender 

 boughs) are neat, compactly and solidly built cups, the 

 cavities being deep and rather more than hemispherical, 

 from 2.25 to fully 3.5 inches in diameter, and from 1.5 

 to 2 inches in depth. The nest-walls vary from 0.5 to 

 1.25 inch in thickness. The composition of the nest 

 is various." 



" Elsewhere I have recorded the following note on 

 the nidification of this species: 



'"This bird, or rather birds of this species, have 

 been laying ever since the middle of April, but nests 

 were then few and far between, and now in July they 

 are common enough. The nest that we had just found 

 was precisely like twenty others that we had found 

 during the past two months. Rather deep, with a 

 nearly hemispherical cavity ; very compactly and firmly 

 woven of fine grass, rags, feathers, soft twine, wool, 

 and a few fine twigs, the whole entwined exteriorly 

 with lots of cobwebs ; and the interior cavitv about 

 1| inch deep by 2i in diameter, neatly lined with very 

 fine grass, one'or two horsehairs, shreds of string, and 

 one or two soft feathers. The walls were a good inch 

 in thickness. The nest was placed in a fork of a 

 thorny jujuba or ber tree (Zizyphus jujuba}, near the 

 centre of the tree, and some 15 feet from the ground. 

 It contained four fresh eggs, feebly-coloured miniatures 

 of the ecrss of L. JnJifora, which latter so closely re- 

 semble those of L. f.rrultitnr that if you mixed the eggs 

 you could never, I think, certainly separate them 

 again'" (pp. 311-312). The author then proceeds to- 

 describe the egss in detail, but as we are all familiar 

 with Shrikes' eggs, and those of L. htJitm-a have already 

 been described, it seems hardly worth while to quote 

 further. 



This prettv little Shrike was exhibited for the first 

 time in the London Zoological Gardens in March, 1903. 

 FOUR-COLOURED SHRIKE (Laniarius quadricolor}. 

 " Adult Male. Above crown, ear-coverts, and all 

 the upper surface of the body, including the wing- 

 coverts, the inner secondaries, and the outer webs o 

 the remaining quills, deep grass-green; inner _ webs of 

 quills dusky ; two centre tail-feathers green, with black 

 ends, remaining tail-feathers black, their bases tinged 

 with green ; a line from the bill over the eye orange ; lores 

 and a broad streak through the eye black ; cheeks and 

 throat scarlet, the bases of the feathers yellow ; below 

 the throat a broad pectoral band of black, continuous 

 on either side with a narrow streak of black which 

 originates from the base of the lower mandible ; re- 

 maining lower surface yellow, tinged with scarlet on 



