LANIUS 233 



beetles and locusts, occasionally on small mammals and birds. 

 Its flight is laboured and it usually flies low, from bush to bush. 

 Its call-note is loud and sharp and it is an excellent mimic. 

 Its nest is placed on a bush or low tree, is constructed of fine 

 twigs, plant-stems, and grass-bents, well lined with fine bents, 

 wool, plant-cotton, and small rags, and the eggs 5 to 7 in 

 number, are pale greenish yellow or dirty greyish white with 

 underlying dull lilac shell-markings and liver-brown surface- 

 spots and blotches, in size averaging about I'O by 0'75. 



345. INDIAN GREY SHRIKE. 

 LANIUS LAHTORA. 



Lanius lalttora (Sykes), P.Z.S. 1832, p. 86 ; Gray and Hardw. 111. Ind. 

 Zool. ii. pi. 32 ; Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 400 ; Gadow, Cat. B. Br. Mus, 

 viii. p. 252 ; Dresser, iii. p. 381, partim ; Gates, Faun. Brit. Ind. 

 Birds, i. p. 459. 



r ; Dudiya latora, Hind. ; Kach-kacha-latora, Beng. ; CJiinka 

 bellinchi, Tel. 



ad. (India). Differs from L. elegans in having the lesser wing- 

 coverts black, or black slightly tipped with grey and the black frontal 

 band broad and well denned. Culinen 0'85, wing 4'2, tail 4 '6, tarsus l'2 r 

 inch. 



Hob. Afghanistan ; the plains of India from Sind to Western 

 Bengal, and south to Belgaum. 



In its general habits it does not differ from L. elegans and 

 inhabits the plains, not ascending the hill ranges. It breeds 

 from January to August, its nest and eggs not differing from 

 those of L. elegans. 



346. GRIMM'S GREY SHRIKE. 

 LANIUS GRIMMI. 



Lanius grimmi, Bogd. Sorokop. Russk. Fann. p. 151. pi. iv. (1881) ; 

 Dresser, ix. p. 153, pi. 666 ; Gadow, Cat. B. Br. Mus. viii. p. 250. 



Ad. (Atrek). Upper parts pale isabelline grey, the rump tinged with 

 rufous ; lores, forehead, and a narrow line over the eye white ; a post-ocular 

 patch including the ear-coverts dull black ; wings and tail much as in 

 L. elegans, but the black duller and tinged with brown ; under parts 

 white washed with rosy isabelline ; bill light horn, darker along the 

 culmen and at the tip ; legs brownish ; iris brown. Cul men 0'75, wing 

 4*45, tail 4-5, tarsus 1-2 inch. 



