In length the eggs vary from 0.69 to 0.8 inch, and in breadth from 0.57 to 0.65 inch; but the average of a dozen eggs is 0.75 by 0.61 inch nearly.

490.  Pericrocotus speciosus (Lath.). The Indian Scarlet Minivet.

Pericrocotus speciosus (Lath.).  Jerd.  B. Ind. i, p. 419; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 271.

Captain Hutton records that the Indian Scarlet Minivet breeds both on the Doon and in the hills overlooking it, to an elevation of about 5000 feet.  He says:—­“The nest is generally placed high up on the branch of some tall tree, often overhanging the side of a fearful precipice.  On the 6th and 17th of June I procured two nests in ravines opening upon the Doon, one of which contained four, and the other five eggs, of a dull-white colour, sparingly spotted and blotched with earthy brown, more thickly so at the larger end, where they form an open ring of spots; other small blotches of a fainter colour are seen beneath the shell.

“It is a curious fact that in the latter nest, out of the five eggs three were ringed at the larger end, and the other two at the smaller end.  The nest is rather coarsely made, being very thick at the sides, and the materials not neatly interwoven; it is composed externally of dried grasses and the fine stalks of various small plants, interspersed with bits of cotton and grass-roots, and lined with the fine seed-stalks of small grasses.”

I am not at all sure that there is not some mistake here.  The nest described is rather that of L. erythronotus than of any of the Pericrocoti, and but for the excellent authority on which the above rests, I should certainly not have accepted it.

This species breeds in the forests of the central hills of Nepal; recording to Mr. Hodgson’s notes and drawings they begin laying about April, and lay three or four eggs, which are neither described nor figured.  The nest is a beautiful deep cup externally about 3.25 inches in diameter, and rather more than 2 inches high, composed of moss and moss-roots lined internally with the latter, and entirely coated exteriorly with lichen and a few stray pieces of green moss firmly secured in their places by spiders’ webs.  The nest is placed in some slender branch between three or four upright sprays.  This, I may note, is just the kind of nest one would have expected this Large Minivet to build.

The only specimens, supposed to be the eggs of this species, that I possess I owe to Captain Hutton.  They closely resemble the eggs of L. erythronotus, but are perhaps shorter, and hence look broader than those of this latter.  They are slightly bigger than the eggs of L. vittatus.  In shape they seem to be typically a slightly broader oval than those of any of our true Shrikes, but elongated and pointed examples occur.  Their ground-colour is a very pale greyish white, thickly spotted all over the large end, and thickly dotted elsewhere, with specks, spots, and tiny blotches of pale yellowish brown and pale inky-purple.  Compared with the eggs of the other Pericrocoti, they are very dingily coloured.  The eggs are devoid of gloss.  I am doubtful about these eggs.