LAOTUS. 315 



parent, and was sitting on the edge of the nest, also gasping 

 hard. 



" I do not exactly gather from your notes in the ' Eough Draft ' 

 what form the spots usually take. In my nest taken on the 12th 

 May all four eggs had the zone quite as distinct as the eggs of a 

 Fan-tailed Flycatcher. The seven eggs taken from two nests at 

 Khandalla, on the other hand, had not the least appearance of a 

 zone, but were spotted, after the manner of Sparrows' eggs. In 

 both the latter cases I saw the old bird fly off the nest and alight 

 on a tree a few yards off. 



" I remember one little Shrike of this species which used to 

 come down every day to pick up crumbs of bread and pieces of 

 potatoe put out for the Sparrows. (Being a true naturalist I love 

 Sparrows.) 



" My brother on one occasion saw one of these Shrikes trying 

 to catch a garden lizard — not a gecko. 



" Of course you know that the young of this handsome and 

 brightly coloured Shrike have a plain and curiously marked plumage, 

 reminding one a little of the pateela Partridge. I never saw this 

 Shrike in Bombay." 



The eggs of this, the smallest of all our Indian Shrikes, differ in 

 no particular, so far as shape, colour, and markings go, from those 

 of its larger congeners ; that is to say, for every egg of this species 

 an exactly similar one might be picked out from a large series of 

 L. lahtora or L. erythronotus ; but at the same time there is no 

 doubt that pale-creamy and pale-brownish stone-coloured grounds 

 predominate more amongst the eggs of this species than in those 

 of the two above-named. The markings are also, as a rule, more 

 minute and less well-defined ; indeed, in the large series I possess 

 there is not one which exhibits the bold sharp blotches common in 

 the eggs of L. lahtora, and not uncommon in those of L. erythro- 

 notus. 



In length they vary from 075 to 0*95 inch, and in breadth from 

 - 62 to 071 inch ; but the average of forty-five eggs is 0-83 by 

 66 inch nearly. 



475. Lanius nigriceps (Franklin). The Blade-headed Shrike. 



Lanius nigriceps {Frankl.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 404. 



Collyrio nigriceps, Frankl., Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 259. 



I have never myself taken the eggs or nests of the Black-headed 

 Shrike. 



Mr. E. Thompson says : — " This Shrike breeds all along the 

 south-western termination of the Kumaon and Gurhwal forests, 

 and is usually found in swampy, high grassy lands. It lays in 

 July, August, and September, building a large cup-shaped nest, 

 composed of roots and fine grasses, in small trees or shrubs in low, 

 open grass-covered country. 



" I found this the Common Shrike in the hilly jungly tracts in 



