In length they vary from 0.82 to 1.01, and in breadth from 0.68 to 0.79; but the average of forty-two eggs measured is 0.92 by 0.75.

476.  Lanius erythronotus (Vigors). The Rufous-backed Shrike.

Lanius erythronotus (Vig.); Jerd.  B. Ind. i, p. 402.  Collyrio erythronotus, Vigors, Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 257.  Collyrio caniceps[A] (Blyth), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 257 bis.

[Footnote A:  Mr. Hume may probably still consider L. caniceps separable from L. erythronotus.  I therefore keep the notes on the two races distinct as they appeared in the ‘Rough Draft,’ merely adding a few later notes.—­ED.]

Lanius erythronotus.

The Rufous-backed Shrike lays from March to August; the first half of this period being that in which the majority of these birds lay in the Himalayas, which they ascend to elevations of 6000 feet:  and the latter half being that in which we find most eggs in the plains; but in both hills and plains some eggs may be found throughout the whole period above indicated.

The nests of this species are almost invariably placed on forks of trees or of their branches at no great height from the ground; indeed, of all the many nests that I have myself taken, I do not think that one was above 15 feet from the ground.  By preference they build, I think, in thorny trees, the various species of acacia, so common throughout the plains of India, being apparently their favourite nesting-haunts, but I have found them breeding on toon (Cedrela toona) and other trees.  Internally the nest is always a deep cup, from 3 to 31/4 inches in diameter, and from 13/4 to 2-1/8 deep.  The cavity is always circular and regular, and lined with fine grass.  Externally the nests vary greatly; they are always massive, but some are compact and of moderate dimensions externally, say not exceeding 51/2 inches in diameter, while others are loose and straggling, with a diameter of fully 8 inches.  Grass-stems, fine twigs, cotton-wool, old rags, dead leaves, pieces of snake’s skin, and all kinds of odds and ends are incorporated in the structure, which is generally more or less strongly bound together by fine tow-like vegetable fibre.  Some nests indeed are so closely put together that they might almost be rolled about without injury, while others again are so loose that it is scarcely possible to move them from the fork in which they are wedged without pulling them to pieces.

I have innumerable notes about the nests of this Shrike, of which I reproduce two or three.

“Etawah, March 18th.—­The nest was on a babool tree, some 10 feet from the ground, on one of the outside branches; an exterior framework of very thorny babool twigs, and within a very warm deep circular nest made almost entirely of sun (Crotalaria juncea) fibre, a sort of fine tow, and flocks of cotton-wool, there being fully as much of this latter as of the former; a few fine grass-stems are interwoven; there are a few human and a few sleep’s wool hairs at the bottom as a sort of lining.  The cavity of the nest is about 3 inches in diameter by 2 deep, and the side walls and bottom are from 11/2 to 2 inches thick.”