138 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY 
0°85; closed wings fall short of tail, 1:1 to 1:5; weight, 0°65 
tu 1-1 oz. Bill, horn color or slaty grey ; irides, dark brown ; 
legs and feet, slaty ¢ grey ; claws, dusky. 
“The Desert Shrike ‘is very common in the plains of Kash- 
eharia, where it breeds. I obtained my first specimen of ve 
species near Yarkand on the 14th April, and from that date it wa 
observed continuously up to the 15th August, where I saw the 
last of this Shrike, north of the Chuchu Pass, at an elevation of 
about 10,000 feet. Its was not observed at all during the win- 
ter, and with the exception of possibly a few stray stragglers, 
the bird no doubt migrates from Eastern Turkestan about Octo- 
ber; and this agrees exactly with the native account of the 
matter. This Shrike was usually found in waste ground, 
perching on thorn bushes, and in the neighbourhood of swamps 
and small lakes; its ery was harsh and chattering. 
The bird breeds in May and June, great numbers of nestlings 
being captured by the Yarkand boys during the latter month. 
On the 13th June a nest containing four eggs said to belong 
to this species, was brought to me; a Shrike. “said to have been 
captured on the nest was brought at the same time. The nest 
was found in a thorn bush, and the contents of the eggs in it 
were found to be quite fluid. The nest is a circular shallow 
structure, coarsely made up of rush and fibres, the egg cavity 
lined with horse-hair. It is about three inches in diameter 
and 1°7 deep; the walls one inch thick. There is a regular 
notch in one portion of the side wall, down to the level of the 
ege cavity. The eggs vary in shape from a moderate oval, 
compressed a little at one end, to a blunt broad oval, very 
slightly smaller at one end, The eggs have no gloss and the 
ground color is pale pinkish creamy, sparsely sprinkled over 
with reddish spots; atthe large end there are reddish spots 
and blotches, with fainter livid blotches, forming a zone round 
the egg. In length they vary from 0°85 to 0:95 and in breadth 
from 0°69 to 0-7. The average of the four eggs is 0°895 by 
0:697. The Turki name for the Desert Shrike is Ghurulai. 
From the account given in ‘ Lahore to Yarkand’ I expected to 
find Lanius cristatus and not L. arenarius, and so went on 
shooting Shrikes in the hopes of getting the former, but in vain. 
All the birds I saw were certainly of one species, and Mr. 
Hume unhesitatingly refers all the thirteen specimens* I 
brought back to L. arenarius. The Yarkandis were positive 
that only one kind of Shrike was to be found in their neighbour- 
hood in summer; and it is £. arenarius which they call 
* Since writing the above Mr. Hume has informed me that one of these is a young 
bird about which he hestitates to pronounce certainly ; but even this, he thinks, is also 
probably arenarius.—, 8, 
