and other miscellaneous articles all woven together.  The interior is neatly lined with dry grass and horsehair.  The eggs, five in number, are of a pale greenish-white colour, spotted all over with olivaceous inky-brown spots and specks, increasing in size and forming a zone at the large end.  They vary much in shape, some being pyriform, and others blunt and similar in shape at both ends.  I took another nest on the 19th June near the same place containing five fresh eggs, similar in every respect to the one already described, except that it was built on a thorn-tree about 10 feet from the ground.  I took a nest at Deesa on the 8th July, 1875, containing four fresh eggs; these eggs are smaller and rounder than those from Aboo, and the blotches are larger and more distinct.  The same pair of birds built another nest a few days later, on 18th July, within ten yards of the tree from which the other nest was taken, laying five eggs.

“I found other nests at Deesa on the following dates:—­

“July 2nd.  A nest containing 4 incubated eggs.
"   7th.   "        "      2 fresh eggs.
"   8th.   "        "      4     "
"   9th.   "        "      2     "
"  10th.   "        "      5     "
"  10th.   "        "      4     "
Aug. 9th.   "        "      3     "

“I found many other nests in the same neighbourhood containing young birds during the last week of July.”

Regarding the Rufous-backed Shrike, Mr. Benjamin Aitken has sent me the subjoined interesting note:—­“This Shrike makes its appearance in Bombay regularly during the last week of September, and announces its arrival by loud cries for the first few days, till it has made itself at home in the new neighbourhood; after which it spends nearly the whole of its days on a favourite perch, darting down on every insect that appears within a radius of thirty yards.  It pursues this occupation with a system and perseverance to which L. lahtora makes but a small approach.  When its stomach is full, it enlivens the weary hours with the nearest semblance to a song of which its vocal organs are capable; for while many human bipeds have a good voice but no ear, the L. erythronotus has an excellent ear but a voice that no modulation will make tolerable.  It remains in Bombay till towards the end of February, and then suddenly becomes restless and quarrelsome, making as much ado as the Koel in June, and then taking its departure, for what part of the world I do not know.  This I know, that from March to August there is never a Rufous-backed Shrike in Bombay.

“The Rufous-backed Shrike, though not so large as the Grey Shrike, is a much bolder and fiercer bird.  It will come down at once to a cage of small birds exposed at a window, and I once had an Amadavat killed and partly eaten through the wires by one of these Shrikes, which I saw in the act with my own eyes.  The next day I caught the Shrike in a large basket which I set over the cage of Amadavats.  On another