are almost carmine-red, but the majority
are brownish red or reddish brown, varying much in depth and intensity
of colour. There is something Shrike-like in the markings of many
eggs; and where the markings are most numerous, namely at the large
end, they are commonly intermingled with streaks and clouds of
pale lilac. The smaller end of the egg is often entirely free from
markings. I should mention that all the eggs have a faint gloss, and
that some are decidedly glossy.

They vary in length from 0.76 to 0.95, and in breadth from 0.59 to
0.66; but the average of thirty-four eggs is 0.85 by 0.62.

237. Pteruthius erythropterus (Vig.). _The Red-winged Shrike-Tit_.

Pteruthius erythropterus (_Vig.) Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 245; _Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 609.

Writing from Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall says:--"There is no
record about the nidification of this species. Its nest is exceedingly
difficult to find, and it was only by long and careful watching
through field-glasses that Captain Cock discovered that there was a
nest at the top of a very high chestnut-tree, to and from which the
birds kept flying with building-materials in their beaks. The nest is
most skilfully concealed, being at the top of the tree, with bunches
of leaves both above and below. The nest, like that of the Oriole, is
built pendent in a fork. It is somewhat roughly made of moss and hair.
The eggs are pinky white, blotched with red, forming in some a ring
round the larger end. They average 0.9 in length and 0.65 in breadth.
We were fortunate enough to secure two nests; both were more than 60
feet from the ground. Breeds in the end of May, at an elevation of
7000 feet."

Captain Cock says:--"I first found this bird building its nest on the
top of a high chestnut-tree at Murree in the month of May. When the
nest was ready I took my friend Captain C.H.T. Marshall to be present
at the taking of it, as it had never, I think, been taken before. We
took the nest on the 30th May.

"It was an open flattish cup, like the nest of _O. kundoo_ in
structure, only shallower. It contained three eggs, pinky white,
covered with a shower of claret spots that at the larger end formed a
cap of dark claret colour. Another nest, which I took in June from the
top of an oak, contained two eggs."

To Colonel Marshall and Captain Cock I am indebted for a nest and egg
of this species.

The nest is a moderately deep cup, suspended between two prongs of a
hori