540 Mr. W. Jesse on the 
found in gardens^ avenues, or mango-groves, and I Lave 
never seen it in lovr scrub or dhak-jungle. This Shrike 
was generally noticed by me singly or in pairs, but Reid 
described it as moving about '''in small parties^ apparently 
searching the leaves and branches of trees for insects, cater- 
pillars, &c/' It breeds from the middle of March to the 
end of May — possibly later. 
The nest, a felted cup made of rootlets, bits of bark, 
cloth, string, &c., and coated over with cobwebs, is very 
difficult to find. The bird is extremely suspicious, and 
cannot easily be made to betray its home. Moreover, if 
a nest is disturbed during the building process, it is almost 
certain to be forsaken and destroyed. For several years I 
tried to get the eggs, but without success. In 1901, however, 
I took three nests with my own hands : — 
March 25. . . . Bird sitting on nest with 3 fresh eggs. 
April 24 ... . ,, ,, „ 4 slightly set eggs : 5 shot. 
May 25 .... ,, ,, ,, 3 newly set eggs. 
The first nest was in a neem tree, the other two were in 
maugos. The colour of the eggs is white with a greenish 
tinge, thickly spotted and mottled with various shades of 
brown and purple. Those of the first and second nests 
have the markings pretty evenly distributed all over, but 
in those of the third the majority go to form dense rings 
near the larger end. 
The note of this bird, though difficult to express in words, 
is pretty and mellow, and easily recognised. The name 
given to this species by the Martiniere boys represents the 
sound about as nearly as any word can do. 
Averao:e of 10 Lucknow eofo-s "70" x "oS" 
Measurement of largest ^^g •7o"x*61" 
,, smallest ^'g^ "GG" X '56' 
No. 490. Pericrocotus speciosus. Indian Scarlet Mi- 
nivct. 
Sat suki kapi [H., teste Reid]. 
In the winter of 1894 Mr. John Spencc, of La Martiniere 
College, shot a pair of birds, male and female, which he kindly 
gave to me. I had only just arrived in India and knew nothing 
