In length they vary from 0.75 to 0.95 inch, and in breadth from 0.62 to 0.71 inch; but the average of forty-five eggs is 0.83 by 0.66 inch nearly.

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

Lanius nigriceps (Frankl.), Jerd.  B. Ind. i, p. 404. 
Collyrio nigriceps, Frankl., Hume, Rough Draft N. & 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 Southern Mirzapore, but I do not know whether it breeds there.  The cry is quite like that of L. erythronotus.

“The southern limit of Lanius nigriceps is interesting and remarkable.  It disappears after you go south-west of the Mykle Range, and on the Range itself it is found only near marshy places.  This Mykle Range extends as far east as Ummerkuntuk, with a spur going off north of that, and joining on with the Kymore Range, parts of which I explored in March last in Pergunnahs Agrore and Singrowlee.  Down in those places this Lanius was the Common Shrike, but south and west of Ummerkuntuk all the Shrikes disappear more or less, and L. nigriceps entirely.”

According to Mr. Hodgson’s notes and figures this species breeds in the Valley of Nepal, laying in April and May, and building in thorny bushes, hedges, and trees, often in the immediate neighbourhood of villages.  The following are two of Mr. Hodgson’s notes:—­

“Valley, May 18th.—­Nest near the top of a fir of mean size, fixed securely in the midst of several diverging branches, made compactly of dry grasses, of which the inner ones, which constitute the lining, are hard and elastic, and well fitted to preserve the shape, which is a deep cup with an internal cavity 3.5 inches in diameter and nearly 3 deep.  It contained six eggs, milk-and-water white, with pale olive spots, chiefly at the large end, measuring 0.95 by 0.68 inch.

“Jahar Powah, May 16th.—­Ascent of Sheopoori, skirts of large forests; nest on lateral branches of a large tree made of downy tops of plants, of moss and thick grasses strongly compacted, and lined with fine elastic hair-like grass; the cavity is circular, 3 inches in diameter by more than 2 inches in depth; the whole nest is a solid deep cup; it contained four eggs, bluish white, with grey-brown remote spots.”

Of another nest he gives the dimensions as:—­external diameter 4.25 inches; external height 3.87; internal diameter 2.87; depth of cavity 2.75.  He figures it as a very compact and deep cup resting on a horizontal fir branch between four or five upright sprays.  He states that the young are ready to fly towards the end of June, and that it breeds only once a year.