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 usuall