220 LANIADE. 



nest when she has eggs ; and if disturbed after the young are 

 hatched, both parents remain either in the bush that contains 

 the nest or on a neighbouring tree until the danger is past, 

 and, to draw off attention from the spot, they keep moving in 

 opposite directions, uttering all the while their alarm-cry. 

 We have seen them help the young ones out of the nest 

 for the purpose of hiding them in the thicket beneath, and 

 the moment they have reached the ground not another chirp 

 is heard from the nestlings, which have apparently received a 

 signal to be quiet, although the parent bb'ds, perched in a 

 tree at a little distance, keep up a continual clamour. 



This species is of frequent occurrence in the well-wooded 

 districts of some of our southern counties, where it has often 

 come under our observation, and where we have obtained 

 many nests. In some parts of Surrey the eggs are so com- 

 mon as to be found strung among other ordinary eggs, in the 

 possession of every little village urchin. Among the nests that 

 we have met with we have observed much difference in size, not 

 only externally, where they are naturally more or less bulky, 

 according to the locality in which they are placed, but in the 

 interior formation, so as to induce a belief that the larger 

 nests might be those of the Grey Shrike (Lcurius excubitor). 

 The eggs also vary very considerably, both in size and co- 

 lour : in some the surface is dull and chalky, others possess 

 considerable polish, but those from the same nest usually 

 resemble one another tolerably in all these particulars. One 

 set in our possession has the ground colour greenish-white, 

 with a zone of large blotches round the centre, varying from 

 ash-grey to umber-brown, and minutely spotted over the rest 

 of the surface with bistre. Another set has the ground colour 

 flesh-red, the zone of large spots greyish-blue, and the rest of 

 the surface sprinkled with dark red-brown. The one figured 

 in the plate is a specimen of remarkable beauty, in which the 

 spots are entirely confined to the zone or wreath. Another 



