ed
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 21/2 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 71/2 inches in
diameter, and from 11/2 to 31/2 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 31/2 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