CATALOGUE. 
151 
another capture. Such is the usual tnode of feeding of this bird. 
It very frequently, however, captures various small insects on the 
wing, from the top of a tree or some lofty branch, sometimes ascend- 
ing almost perpendicularly for several feet, occasionally whips one 
off a blade of grain, or from the surface of a pool of water. On the 
issuing of the winged termites from a nest in a hedge-row, or near 
the bottom of a tree, there are generally several assembled to 
partake of the feast, together with the crows and minas. This bird 
gets its popular name of king-crow, from its general habit of follow- 
ing crows most clamorously and perseveringly, every now and then 
pouncing down on them, though it seldom strikes. It pursues kites 
and various other birds also ; whence one of its common Hindustani 
names (Xotwal). In the bare Deccan I have often seen one or two 
king-crows high in the air, traversing the country, but apparently 
not hunting." 
"The usual cry of this shrike, is a sort of crow or chuckle, 
succeeded by two or three sweeter notes ; but it has several other 
cries. It is the first bird whose song is heard in the morning, often 
long before sunrise, and sometimes on moonlight nights throughout 
the whole night. Its flight is in general undulating, not very rapid, 
performed with few flappings ; but when it exerts itself after a crow 
or other bird, it is capable of great speed, and always overtakes its 
enemy with ease. It occurs singly or in small families. I once 
found its nest, in the month of August, in the Carnatic, situated in 
the fork of a banian tree, at a moderate elevation : it was composed 
of twigs and roots, carelessly put together, and without any lining, 
and contained three eggs, white, sparingly spotted with purplish 
red. Its chief food is grasshoppers of various kinds, also bees, 
moths, and other insects, chiefly coleopterous. Mr. Elliott in his 
* Notes ' says, ' it migrates from the Southern Mahratta Country 
during the monsoon.' In the Carnatic I never observed any 
diminution in its numbers at any season, but in the northern part 
of the Deccan (at Jaulnah), it certainly becomes much more rare at 
that time, and indeed is hardly met with. The Kolsa is occasionally 
tamed, and will perch on the head or hand of its master, and fly 
down after a grasshopper or other insect." — (Jerd., Madr. Journ. 
L. S. X. p. 238.) 
Captain Tickell states, " The nest is made on summits of thick 
bushes, or midway up medium-sized trees ; concealed in the trunk ; 
hemispherical, 6 to 8 inches in diameter, of coarse grasses, fibrous 
roots lined with finer grass and wool. Eggs 3 to 5, ordinary 
