Part 58 (1/2)

I saw the other evening an old bird pounce on a field-mouse, kill it, and then bring and cleverly fix the victim firmly between the two forks of a branch and pull it in pieces. It consumed but a part of the mouse.”

Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note on this bird's breeding in the neighbourhood of Pind Dadan Khan and Kaias in the Salt Range:--'”Lay in May; eggs five to six; shape blunt, ovato-pyriform; size varies from 088 to 093 of an inch in length, and from 068 to 081 of an inch in breadth. Colour white or pale greenish white, slightly ringed and spotted with yellowish grey and neutral tint. Nest of roots, coa.r.s.e gra.s.s, rags, cotton, &c., lined with fine gra.s.s, and placed in forks of trees.”

Captain Hutton, who recognizes the distinctions between this species and _L. caniceps_, says:--”This is an abundant species in the Doon, but is found also within the mountains up to about 5000 feet. In the Doon I took a nest on the 28th June containing four eggs. It is composed of gra.s.s and fine stalks of small plants roughly put together, bits of rag, shreds of fine bark, and lined with very fine gra.s.s-seed stalks; internal diameter 3 inches, external 6 inches; depth 2 inches.”

Sir E.C. Buck notes having taken a nest containing four hard-set eggs on the 22nd of June, far in the interior of the Himalayas, at Niratu, north-east of Notgurh. The nest was in a tuhar tree and was composed externally of gra.s.s-seed ears, internally of finer gra.s.s; a very different-looking nest from any I have elsewhere seen, but he forwarded the bird and eggs, so that there could be no mistake.

From Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall writes:--”Found numerous nests in the valleys in May and June, between 4000 and 5000 feet up.”

From four to six eggs are laid, and in regard to this Shrike I have had no reason to think that it rears more than one brood in the year.

Major Wardlaw Ramsay say says, writing of Afghanistan:--”I found a great many nests in May and June. The first (27th May) was situated in the centre of a dense th.o.r.n.y creeper, and contained six eggs, white, faintly washed with pale green, and spotted and blotched with purplish stone-colour and pale brown. The nest was composed of green gra.s.s, moss, cotton-wool, thistle-down, rags, cows' hair, mules' hair, shreds of juniper-bark, &c., &c. Other nests were found in willows by the river-bank and in apricot-trees. In a large orchard at Shalofyan, in the Kurrum valley, I found three nests within a few yards of one another.”

Major C.T. Bingham writes:--”I have only found one nest of this Shrike, which is, however, common enough both at Allahabad and at Delhi. This nest I found on the 3rd June in the Nicholson gardens at Delhi. It was placed high up in the fork of a babool tree, and though more straggling and loosely built was very like that of _L. lahtora_; the two eggs it contained, except that they are a trifle smaller, are very like those of _L. lahtora_”

Colonel Butler has furnished me with the following note:--The Rufous-backed Shrike commences nidification at Mt. Aboo about the end of May. I took a nest on the 11th June containing five fresh eggs. It was placed in the fork of one of the outer branches of a mango-tree about 15 feet, from the ground. The hen bird sat very close, allowing the native I sent up the tree to put his hand almost on to her back before she moved, and then she only flew to a bough close by, remaining there chattering and scolding angrily the whole time the nest was being robbed. The nest, which is coa.r.s.e and somewhat large for the size of the bird, is composed externally of dry gra.s.s-roots, twigs, rags, raw cotton, string, and other miscellaneous articles all woven together. The interior is neatly lined with dry gra.s.s 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 occasion I exposed a rat in a cage for the purpose of attracting a Hawk, and in a few minutes found a _L. erythronotus_ fiercely attacking the cage on all sides. I once caught one alive and kept it for some time. As soon as it found itself safely enclosed in the cage, it scorned to show any fear, and the third day took food from my hand. It was very fond of bathing, and was a handsome and interesting pet.”

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark:--”Very common in Satara; breeding freely in beginning of the rains; observed at Lanoli. Bare in the Sholapoor District and does not appear to breed there.” And the former gentleman, writing of Western Khandeish, says:--”A few pairs breed about Dhulia in June and July.”

Mr. C.J.W. Taylor records the following note from Manzeerabad in Mysore:--”Plentiful all over the district. Breeding in May; eggs taken on the 7th.”

I have so fully described the eggs of _L. lahtora_, of which the eggs of this present species are almost miniatures, that I need say but little in regard to these. On the whole, the markings in this species are, I think, feebler and less numerous than in _L. lahtora_; and though this would not strike one in the comparison of a few eggs in each, it is apparent enough when several hundreds of each are laid side by side, four or five abreast, in broad parallel rows. The ground-colour, too, in the egg of _L. erythronotus_ has seldom, if ever, as much green in it, and has commonly more of the pale creamy or pinky stone-colour than in the case of _L. lahtora_.

In size the eggs of _L. erythronotus_ appear to approach those of the English Red-backed Shrike, though they average perhaps somewhat smaller.

In length they vary from 085 to 105 inch, and in breadth from 065 to 077 inch, but the average of more than one hundred eggs measured is 092 by 071 inch.

_Lanius caniceps_.

This closely allied species, the Pale Rufous-backed Shrike, breeds only, so far as I yet know, in the Nilghiris, Palanis, &c.

It lays from March to July, the majority, I think, breeding in June.

Its nest is very similar and is similarly placed to that of the preceding, from which, if it differs at all, it only differs in being somewhat smaller.