From Kotagherry Miss c.o.c.kburn tells us that "the Common Wren-Warbler has no song, but is loud and frequent in its repet.i.tion of a few notes during the breeding-season. Its nest, which is globular, is built in the same shape as that of _P. socialis_, with the entrance at one end, on some low bush, but it only uses _one_ material, namely fine long gra.s.s, and does not add any soft lining. The colour of its eggs, however, is totally different, of a light bluish green, and having a number of spots and streaks like dark threads carried round and through the spots, which are mostly at the thick end. The breeding-season lasts from April to July."

Mr. C.J.W. Taylor, writing from Manzeerabad, Mysore, says:--"Fairly common throughout the district. Eggs taken on the 15th July, 1882."

Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, remarks:--"It builds a neat pendent nest in long gra.s.s on the Nilgiris. The nest is composed entirely of short pieces of gra.s.s fitted together, and is very compact. The eggs are three in number, and are of a blue colour, with large blotches and hair-like streaks of a dark reddish brown at the upper end. An egg measured 69 inch by 5."

The eggs of this species do not differ materially in size, shape, or markings from those of _P. inornata_ which are very fully described above.

468. Prinia blanfordi (Walden). _The Burmese Wren-Warbler_.

Drymoeca blanfordi, _Wald., Hume, cat._ no. 543 ter.

Mr. Oates, who found this bird very common in Pegu, writes:--"The Burmese Wren-Warbler is perhaps the commonest bird of the Pegu plains.

From Myitkyo on the Sittang, and possibly from further north, down to Rangoon, it is to be found in all the low tracts covered with gra.s.s.

"Where it occurs it is a constant resident and breeds from May to August. I have found the nest in the middle of May, but it is not till July that the bulk of the birds lay.

"The nest is never more than 4 feet from the ground, and is attached either to two or more stalks of elephant-gra.s.s or to the stem of a low weed, or to the blades of certain tender gra.s.ses which grow in thick tufts. There is little or no attempt at concealment. The materials forming the nest are entirely fine gra.s.ses, of equal coa.r.s.eness or fineness throughout, gathered green, and so beautifully woven together that it is almost impossible to destroy a nest by tearing it asunder, although it may be looked through. In shape it is somewhat of a cylinder, with a tendency to swell out at the middle. Its length, or rather height (for its longer axis, being invariably parallel to the stalks to which the nest is attached, is generally upright), is from 6 to 8 inches, and its extreme width 4. The entrance is placed at the top of the nest, the sides of which are produced an inch or two above the lower edge of the entrance. The thickness of the walls is very small, seldom reaching half, and generally being only a quarter, of an inch. Occasionally the nest is almost globular, but the back of the entrance is in every case produced upwards some inches. There is no lining at all.

"The eggs never exceed four, and frequently are only three, in number, and the female does not commence sitting till the full number is laid.

She deserts the nest on the slightest provocation; and if a nest with only one or two eggs is found, and the fingers inserted, it is useless to leave the eggs in hopes of getting more. She will lay no more. I have tested this in at least ten cases."

Major C.T. Bingham tells us:--"About Kaukarit, on the Houndraw river in Tena.s.serim, I found this species, in June 1878, very common.

They were then breeding, and I found several nests, all, however, unfinished; these were, in material and make, very like the nests of _P. inornata_ which I had taken years ago in India."

The eggs of this species recall in many respects those of _P.

inornata_, but the ground-colour is much more variable, and the markings are more blotchy and less intricate in shape. They are pretty regular ovals, and while some are very glossy others exhibit but little of this. The ground-colour is perhaps typically pale greenish blue, but in a great many specimens this is more or less obliterated by a reddish or pinkish tinge, as if the colour of the markings had run; in some the ground is a sort of reddish olive, in some pinky white. The markings are large blotches and spots, often forming zones or caps about the larger end, where they seem almost always to be most conspicuous, as they vary in colour from an intense burnt-sienna which is almost black, through a dingy maroon, and again to a dull, somewhat pale reddish brown; here and there individual eggs exhibit a hair-line or two, or a hieroglyphic-like mark, but these are the exceptions.

The eggs vary in length from 053 to 064 inch, and in breadth from 042 to 045; but the average of fourteen eggs is 058 by 044.

Very constantly smears or clouds of a paler shade than the blotches cover large portions of the surface between these. Occasionally all the markings are smeared and ill-defined, and in some eggs they are almost entirely wanting, and nothing but a scratch or two about the large end is to be seen.

Family LANIIDAE

Subfamily LANIINAE.

469. Lanius lahtora(Sykes). _The Indian Grey Shrike_.

Lamus lahtora (_Sykes), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 400.

Collyrio lahtora, _Sykes, Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 256.

The Indian Grey Shrike lays from January to August, and occasionally up to October, but the majority of my eggs have been obtained during March or April.

It builds, generally, a very compact and heavy, deep, cup-shaped nest, which it places at heights of from 4 to 10 or 12 feet from the ground in a fork, towards the centre of some densely growing th.o.r.n.y bush or moderate-sized tree, the various carounders, capers, plums, and acacias being those most commonly selected.

As a rule it builds a new nest every year, but it not unfrequently only repairs one that has served it in the previous season, and even at times takes possession of those of other species.

The nest is composed of very various materials, so much so that it is difficult to generalize in regard to them. I have found them built entirely of gra.s.s-roots, with much sheep's wool, lined with hair and feathers, or solidly woven of silky vegetable fibre, mostly that of the putsun (_Hibiscus cannabinus_), in which were incorporated little pieces of rag and strips of the bark of the wild plum (_Zizyphus jujuba_); but I think that most commonly th.o.r.n.y twigs, coa.r.s.e gra.s.s, and gra.s.s-roots form the body of the nest, while the cavity is lined with feathers, hair, soft gra.s.s, and the like.

Generally the nests are very compact and solid, 6 or 7 inches in diameter, and the egg-cavity 3 to 4 in diameter, and 2 to 2 in depth, but I have come across very loosely built and straggling ones.

They have at times two broods in the year (but I do not think that this is always the case), and lay from three to six eggs, four or five being the usual number.

Mr. F.R. Blewitt, writing from Jhansie and Saugor, and detailing his experiences there and in the Delhi Districts, says:--

"The Common Indian Grey Shrike breeds from February to July; it builds on trees; if it has a preference, it is for the close-growing roonj tree (_Acacia leucophlaea_). I have particularly noticed this fact both here and at Gurhi Hursroo. The nest in structure is neat and compact (though I have occasionally seen some very roughly put together), and generally-well fixed into the forks of an off-shooting branch. In shape it is circular, varying from 5 to 7 inches in diameter, and from 1 to 3 inches in thickness; thorn twigs, coa.r.s.e gra.s.s, gra.s.s-roots, old rags, &c. form the outer materials of the nest, and closely interwoven fine gra.s.s and roots the border-rim. The egg-cavity is deeply cup-shaped, from 3 to 5 inches in diameter, and lined with fine gra.s.s and khus; exceptionally shreds of cloth are interwoven with the khus and gra.s.s.

"On one occasion I got a nest with the cup interior entirely lined with old cloth pieces, very cleverly and ingeniously worked into the exterior framework. Five is the regular number of eggs, though at times six have been obtained in one nest. The birds often make their own nests each year, but this is not invariably the case. When at Gurhi Hursroo in February last, I found on an isolated roonj tree four nests within a foot of each other. The under centre one, an _old_ Shrike nest (the other three were of other birds), was occupied by a Shrike sitting on five eggs. I very carefully examined it, and my impression at the time was that the parent birds had returned, to rear a second progeny, to the nest constructed by them the year previous.

"I do not know whether you have noticed the fact, but both _L.

lahtora_ and _L. erythronotus_ often lay in old nests, of which they first carefully repair the egg-cavity with new materials. It is not only, however, in old nests of their own species that these birds make a home in the breeding-season. At times they take possession of fabrics clearly not the work of any Shrike. Quite recently I found a pair of _L. lahtora_ with four eggs in a small nest entirely woven of hemp, the bottom of which was thickly coated with the droppings of former occupants. Again, on the 8th June, a nest with four eggs was found on a roonj tree. This wonderful nest, which I have kept, is entirely composed of what I take to be old felt and feathers, the bottom of the cavity of which, when found, was almost covered with the dung of young birds.

"Evidently this nest was not _originally_ made by the Shrike, but, as would appear, was taken possession of by it, after the brood of some other species of birds had left it."

Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note of this bird's breeding in the neighbourhood of Pind Dadan Khan and Katas in the Salt Range:--"Lays in the last week of March to the end of April. Eggs five only, shape ovato-pyriform, size 106 inch by 08 inch; colour pale greenish white, blotched and tinged with yellowish grey and neutral markings; vary much in intensity and colour. Nest of twigs, lined with cotton or wool, and usually placed in stiff th.o.r.n.y bushes."

Lieut. H.E. Barnes, writing from Chaman in Southern Afghanistan, remarks:--"The Grey-backed Shrike is extremely common, breeding about the end of March, in much the same situations as in India. I have collected many specimens, and failed to detect any difference between the Indian bird and the one found here. The average of twelve eggs is 97 by 75."

He adds subsequently:--"This is the commonest Shrike in the country; it breeds in March and April, and the young are easily reared in captivity."

Mr. W. Blewitt says that he "took four nests of this bird near Hansee on the 28th-30th March; they contained, one 5, two 4, and one 3 eggs; all but the latter (which, curiously enough, were a good deal incubated) quite fresh. The nests were placed in acacia and caper bushes, at heights of from 6 to 14 feet from the ground; they were from 6 to 7 inches in diameter exteriorly, rather loosely constructed of th.o.r.n.y twigs, with egg-cavities from 2 to 2 inches deep, lined with fine straw and leaves." Again he writes: "Took numerous nests in the neighbourhood of Hansee during the month of July; most of the eggs were much incubated, and four was the largest number found in any one nest.

"The nests were all placed upon keekur trees at an average height of some 10 feet from the ground; they were composed of th.o.r.n.y twigs, some with and some without a lining of fine gra.s.s and feathers, and averaged some 5 or 6 inches in diameter by 2 to 4 inches in depth."

Major C.T. Bingham says that "this bird is excessively common about Delhi, far more so than at Allahabad. At the latter place I only found it breeding in March and April, but at Delhi I have found nests in every month from March to August. One evening in June I remember counting in my walk thirteen nests within the radius of a mile; some of these contained fresh eggs, some hard-set, some young. One nest I robbed in April of eggs contained young in the latter end of May, and I believe many of them have two if not more broods in the year. All nests that I have seen have been well made, firm, deep cups of babool branches, lined with gra.s.s-roots, and occasionally with bits of rag and tow. The eggs are broad ovals of a dead chalky bluish-white colour, spotted, chiefly at the large end, with purple and brown. Five is the greatest number of eggs I have found in a nest."

Mr. George Reid informs us that this Shrike breeds from March to July in the Lucknow Division, making a ma.s.sive nest in babool trees, generally in solitary ones on open plains.

Colonel Butler writes:--"The Indian Grey Shrike breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in February, March, April, May, June, and July.

I nave taken nests on the following dates:--

"Feb. 19. A nest containing 4 slightly incubated eggs.

March 13. " " 4 fresh eggs.

" 16. " " 4 "

" 19. " " 4 "

" 20. " " 3 "

" 20. " " 4 "

" 28. " " 4 incubated eggs.

April 9. " " 4 " "

June 1. " " 2 fresh eggs.

" 7. " " 4 young birds.

" 7. " " 2 incubated eggs.

July 9. " " 4 " "