THE BESIBENr BIRDS OF SAUGOR AXD DAM OH DISTRICTS. 91 



a reasoning power which however I am convinced that nobody who knows 

 anything about King-crow will have any diihculty in accrediting him with. 

 There is a curious superstition among the natives that, if a young King- 

 crow in its first flight from the nest alights on the horn of a bullock, 

 the horn will drop off. This may have a parallel in the similar behaviour 

 attributed to the eyes of the guinea pig if you hold the animal up by 

 its tail. 



374. (15). Obthotomus sutokius. Indian Tailor-bird. 

 Piddi. 



I have found both the reddish white and the bluish-green eggs of 

 this bird, but the former are much the more common. 



384. (16). FuANKLiNiA BUCHANANi. Hufous-fronted Wren-warbler. 



464. (17). Pkinia socialis. Ashy Wren-warbler. 



465. (18). PuiNiA SYLVATICA. Jungle Wren-warbler. 

 467. (19). Pkinia inoknata. Indian Wren-warbler. 



C'hitaJcul. 



The latter is the more common of these Wren-warblers, and I have found 

 its nest very distinctly resembling that of the Tailor-bird, so much so that 

 I at first thought the eggs were the blue variety which the Tailor-bird 

 sometimes owns. All of them nest in the rains, in July. As regards the 

 Rufous-fronted Wren-warbler Mr. Tucker has sent me a couple of eggs 

 from a nest found by him in Saug£)r, and speaks of it as "fairly common ;" 

 from the wide distribution given by Gates and Blanford there is no reason 

 why it should not be, but I have not actually come across it myself. 



469. (20). Lanius lahtora. Indian Grey-Shrike. 

 Bara Icttora. 



476. (21). Lanius erythronoius. Rufous-backed Shrike. 

 Majhla latora. 



484. (22). Hemipus picatus. Black-backed Pied Shrike. 

 Chota latora. 



488. (23). Tephrodornis pondicerianus. Common Wood-Shrike. 



I have never seen a Shrike's larder, but on one occasion, on the march in 

 camp, on riding up to investigate a nest in a thick thorn bush, I found 

 close to the nest, which was a new one in process of building, a full-grown 

 lark, fresh killed, impaled through the neck on a long thorn. A pair 

 of Grey Shrikes were in the vicinity, and that the nest belonged to them 

 there was I think no doubt and the responsibility for the murdered lark it 

 was difficult to dissociate from them, but how they managed to catch it I 

 have never been able to imagine. The Grey Shrike nests early in March 

 and April ; the other three varieties wait till June and July. The Wood 

 Shrike's nest is very diflicult to find, and being very small and always 

 situated, according to my experience, on the upper side of a fairly stout 

 branch, at the junction of a fork, is quite impossible to see from below. 



