542 . Mr. W. Jesse on the 
whether building or with eggs, in possession of three birds, 
two females and one male. What is the exact duty of this 
second wife I cannot make out. Possibly she may be a 
drudge. That she exists I have satisfied myself time after 
time, and so convinced are the Martiniere boys of the fact 
that they — no mean observers, by the way — rarely trouble to 
look for a nest if only one female is present. Unfortunately 
I have never yet found out what happens w^hen there are 
young. Whether both females take part in incubation 
and in rearing the young, I do not know. I do not think 
that both lay eggs, as I have never found more than three. 
I wonder whether the second wife is pressed into service, 
cr whether two are taken on trial and the barren one 
dispensed with. 
The great majority of these birds breed with us in March 
and April; but I have taken nests in May, and once a 
single hard-set egg as late as July 26. This strikes me 
as curious, seeing that Oates gives the breeding-season as 
*^from June to October.''^ The eggs are somewhat variable 
in coloration : I have them white with large brown blotches, 
and white spotted with rusty red like those of Parus 
major ; but the majority, I think, are bluish white, with 
various markings of brown, purple, and claret. Several of 
these eggs, as also those of other birds which breed on inacces- 
sible boughs, I have obtained by the following device : — A 
sheet is held underneath the nest by four men, one at each 
corner. Another ascends the tree, and, with a long stick, 
carefully pushes the eggs one by one out of the nest. Unless 
they fall against some twig on the way the chances are ten 
to one on their being taken safely from the sheet. 
Average of 17 Liicknow eggs •66" x "ol" 
Measurement of largest egg "68" X '55" 
„ smallest egg -61" x -49" 
No. 508. ^Campophaga sykesi. Black-headed Cuckoo- 
Shrike. 
Jungle-Warbler [Anglo-Indian boys]. 
The Black-headed Cuckoo-Shrike visits Lucknow about 
May, and leaves at the end of the '^ rains '' ; at any rate, I 
