Part 41

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 0·53 to 0·64 inch, and in breadth from 0·42 to 0·45; but the average of fourteen eggs is 0·58 by 0·44.

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 thorny 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 grass-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 thorny twigs, coarse grass, and grass-roots form the body of the nest, while the cavity is lined with feathers, hair, soft grass, 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 2½ 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 7½ inches in diameter, and from 1½ to 3½ inches in thickness; thorn twigs, coarse grass, grass-roots, old rags, &c. form the outer materials of the nest, and closely interwoven fine grass and roots the border-rim. The egg-cavity is deeply cup-shaped, from 3½ to 5 inches in diameter, and lined with fine grass and khus; exceptionally shreds of cloth are interwoven with the khus and grass.

"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 1·06 inch by 0·8 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 thorny 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 thorny twigs, with egg-cavities from 2 to 2½ 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 thorny twigs, some with and some without a lining of fine grass 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 grass-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 massive 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 " "

"The nest is usually placed in some low, isolated leafless thorny tree (_Acacia, Zizyphus_, &c.), from six to ten feet from the ground. It is solidly built of small dry thorny twigs, old rags, &c. externally, with a thick felt lining of the silky fibre of _Calotropis gigantea_. The eggs vary a good deal in shape, some being much more pointed at the small end than others; some I have are almost perfect peg-tops. They vary in number from three to five; and as a rule the colour is a dingy white, spotted and speckled sparingly all over with olive-brown and inky purple, which together form a well-marked zone at the large end."

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark:--"Common, and breeds abundantly in the Poona and Sholapoor Collectorates at the end of the hot weather. W. has noticed it breeding at Nuluar and Raichore. Davidson observed that it was very rare in the Satara Districts."

Mr. J. Davidson further informs us that _L. lahtora_ is a permanent resident in Western Khandeish, and breeds in every month from January to July.

My friend Mr. Benjamin Aitken furnishes me with the following interesting note:--"You say that the Indian Grey Shrike lays from February to July. Now, in Berar, where this bird is very common, I have found their eggs frequently in the first week of January, and on not only to July, but to September; and I once found a nest in October. I was never able to satisfy myself that the same pair had two broods in the year, but I scarcely think there can be any doubt about the matter. I once found, like your correspondent Mr. Blewitt, four nests in a small babool tree, and only one of them occupied. This was at Poona. My brother first pointed out to me that this species affects the dusty barren plain, whereas _L. erythronotus_ prefers the cool and shaded country. This difference in the habits of the two birds is very observable at Poona, where both species are exceedingly common. Where a _jungly_ or watered piece of country borders upon the open plain, you may see half a dozen of each kind within an area of half a mile radius, and yet never find the one trespassing upon the domain of the other. When you say you have never found a nest more than 1500 feet above the level of the sea, I would remind you that although _L. lahtora_ never ascends the hills, it is yet very abundant in the Deccan, which is 2000 feet above the sea-level.

"I think I have written to you before that during a residence of twelve years I never saw _L. lahtora_ in Bombay."

This Shrike is, however, essentially a plains bird, and never seems to ascend the Himalayas to any elevation. I have never myself found a nest more 1500 feet above the level of the sea.

Typically, the eggs are of a broad oval shape, more or less pointed towards one end, of a delicate greenish-white ground, pretty thickly blotched and spotted with various shades of brown and purple markings, which, always most numerous towards the large end, exhibit a strong tendency to form there an ill-defined zone or irregular mottled cap. The variations, however, in shape, size, colour, extent, and intensity of markings are very great; and yet, in the huge series before me, there is not one that an oologist would not at once unhesitatingly set down as a Shrike's. In some the ground-colour is a delicate pale sea-green. In some it is pale stone-colour; in others creamy, and in a few it has almost a pink tinge. The markings, commonly somewhat dull and ill-defined, are occasionally bold and bright; and in colour they vary through every shade of yellowish, reddish, olive, and purplish brown, while subsurface-looking pale purple clouds are intermingled with the darker and more defined markings. In one egg the markings may be almost exclusively confined to a broad, very irregular zone of bold blotches near the large end. In others the whole surface is more or less thickly clotted with blotches and spots, so closely crowded towards the large end as almost wholly to obscure the ground-colour there. As a rule, the markings are irregular blotches of greater or less extent, but occasionally these blotches form the exceptions, and the majority of the markings are mere spots and specks. In some eggs the purple cloudings greatly predominate; in others scarcely a trace of them is observable. Some eggs are comparatively long and narrow, while some are pyriform and blunt at both ends; and yet, notwithstanding all these great differences, there is a strong family likeness between all the eggs. In size they are, I think, somewhat smaller than those of _L. excubitor_. They vary in length from 0·9 to 1·17 inch, and in width from 0·75 to 0·83 inch; but the average of more than fifty eggs is 1·03 by 0·79 inch.

473. Lanius vittatus. _The Bay-backed Shrike_.

Lanius hardwickii (_Vigors), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 405. Lanius vittatus, _Dum., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 260.

The Bay-backed Shrike breeds throughout the plains of India and in the Sub-Himalayan Ranges up to an elevation of fully 4000 feet.

The laying-season lasts from April to September, but the great majority of eggs are found during the latter half of June and July; in fact, according to my experience, the great body of the birds do not lay until the rains set in.

The nests are placed indifferently on all kinds of trees (I have notes of finding them on mango, plum, orange, tamarind, toon, &c.), never at any great elevation from the ground, and usually in _small_ trees, be the kind chosen what it may. Sometimes a high hedgerow, such as our great Customs hedge, is chosen, and occasionally a solitary caper or stunted acacia-bush.

The nests (almost invariably fixed in forks of slender boughs) are neat, compactly and solidly built cups, the cavities being deep and rather more than hemispherical, from 2·25 to fully 3·5 inches in diameter, and from 1·5 to 2 inches in depth. The nest-walls vary from 0·5 to 1·25 inch in thickness. The composition of the nest is various. The following are brief descriptions which I have noted from time to time:--

"Compactly woven of grass-stems and a few fine twigs, but with more or less wool, rag, cotton, or feathers incorporated; there _is no lining_.

"The nest was rather massive, externally composed of wool, rags, cotton, thread, and feathers, and a little grass; the cavity rather neatly lined with fine grass.

"Composed almost entirely of cobweb, with a few soft feathers, wool, string, rags, and a few pieces of very fine twigs compactly woven. The interior was lined with fine straw and fibrous roots."

Elsewhere I have recorded the following note on the nidification of this species:--

"This bird, or rather birds of this species, have been laying ever since the middle of April, but nests were then few and far between, and now in July they are common enough. The nest that we had just found was precisely like twenty others that we had found during the past two months. Rather deep, with a nearly hemispherical cavity; very compactly and firmly woven of fine grass, rags, feathers, soft twine, wool, and a few fine twigs, the whole entwined exteriorly with lots of cobwebs; and the interior cavity about 1¾ inch deep by 2¼ in diameter, neatly lined with very fine grass, one or two horsehairs, shreds of string, and one or two soft feathers. The walls were a good inch in thickness. The nest was placed in a fork of a thorny jujube or ber tree (_Zizyphus jujuba_), near the centre of the tree, and some 15 feet from the ground. It contained four fresh eggs, feebly coloured miniatures of the eggs of _L. lahtora_, which latter so closely resemble those of _L. excubitor_ that if you mixed the eggs, you could never, I think, certainly separate them again. The eggs exhibit the zone so characteristic of those of all Shrikes. They have a dull pale ground, not white, and yet it is difficult to say what colour it is that tinges it; in these four eggs it is a yellowish stone-colour, but in others it is greenish, and in some grey; near the middle, towards the large end, there is a broad and conspicuous, but broken and irregular zone of feeble, more or less confluent spots and small blotches of pale yellowish brown and very pale washed-out purple. There are a few faint specks and spots of the same colour here and there about the rest of the egg. In some eggs previously obtained the zone is quite in the middle, and in others close round the large end. In some the colours of the markings are clear and bright, in others they are as faint and feeble as one of our modern Manchester warranted-fast-coloured muslins, after its third visit to a native washerman. In size, too, the eggs vary a good deal.

"The little Shrike had a great mind to fight for his _penates_, and twice made a vehement demonstration of attack; but his heart failed him, and he retreated to a neighbouring mango branch, whence a few minutes after we saw him making short dashes after his insect prey, apparently oblivious of the domestic calamity that had so recently befallen him."

Mr. F.R. Blewitt, then at Gurhi Hursroo, near Delhi, sent me some years ago the following interesting note:--

"Breeds from March to at least the middle of August. It builds its nest in low trees and high hedgerows, preferring the former.

"In shape the nest is circular, with a diameter, outside, of from 5½ to 6½ inches, and from 1·5 to 2 in thickness.

"For the exterior framework thorny twigs, old rags, hemp, thread-pieces, and coarse grass are more or less used, and compactly worked together. The egg-cavity is deep and cup-shaped, lined with fine grass and khus; pieces of rag or cotton are sometimes worked up with the former.

"Five to six is the regular number of eggs. In colour they are a light greenish white, with blotches and spots generally of a light, but sometimes of a darker, reddish brown. The spots and blotches vary much in size, and they are mostly confined to the broad end of the eggs.

"I had frequently noticed on a tree in the garden an _old_ Shrike's nest. It was in the beginning of May that a male bird suddenly made his appearance and established himself in the garden, and morning and evening without fail did he sit and alternately chatter and warble away for hours. His perfect imitation of the notes of other birds was remarkable.

"In the beginning of June his singing suddenly ceased, the secret of which I soon discovered. He had secured a mate, and daily did I watch for the nest, which I thought they would prepare. Late on the evening of the 23rd June, happening to look up at the _old_ nest, to my surprise I found it occupied by the female, the male the while sitting on a branch near her. Next morning on searching the nest I found four eggs. Whether this nest was prepared the year previous by these birds or by another pair I cannot tell.

"That day, the day of the robbery, the female disappeared. The male followed next day, but only to return after two or three days and recommence with renewed energy his chattering and warbling. This he continued daily till near the end of July, when, as before, he suddenly ceased to sing. I then found that he had again secured a mate, whether the old female or a new bride I am not certain; they soon set about making a nest on a neighbouring tree, very cunningly, as I thought, selected; and now the young birds reared are nearly full-fledged. An old nest, evidently of last year's make, was brought me the other day with five eggs, but the _lining_, as by the way was done in the one in the garden, had been wholly removed and _new_ grass and khus substituted."

Major C.T. Bingham writes:--"Breeds both at Allahabad and at Delhi in May, June, and July. At the former place I never got the eggs, but have seen some that were taken; but at Delhi I found numbers of their nests in June and July, and one in May. It makes a much softer nest than either of the two above-mentioned Shrikes. One nest I took on the 15th June was composed wholly of tow, but generally they have an outer foundation of twigs, and are lined with tow, bits of cotton, human hair, or rags. Some eggs are a yellow-white, with very faint marks, others are miniatures of the eggs of _L. lahtora_.

"Five is the greatest number I have found in one nest."

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 from the commencement of May to the middle of June. Eggs three or four in number; shape varies from ovato-pyriform to blunt ovato-pyriform, and measuring from 0·73 to 0·87 inch in length and from 0·55 to 0·65[A] inch in breadth. Colour, same as _L. erythronotus_, also creamy or yellowish white, spotted with darker. Nest compact, in forks of thorny trees; outside fibrous stalks, bound with silk or spider-web, and covered with lichens or cocoons, imitating a weathered structure; inside lined with fine grass and vegetable down."