'Rough Draft,' merely
adding a few later notes.--ED.]

_Lanius erythronotus_.

The Rufous-backed Shrike lays from March to August; the first half of
this period being that in which the majority of these birds lay in
the Himalayas, which they ascend to elevations of 6000 feet: and the
latter half being that in which we find most eggs in the plains; but
in both hills and plains some eggs may be found throughout the whole
period above indicated.

The nests of this species are almost invariably placed on forks of
trees or of their branches at no great height from the ground; indeed,
of all the many nests that I have myself taken, I do not think that
one was above 15 feet from the ground. By preference they build, I
think, in thorny trees, the various species of acacia, so common
throughout the plains of India, being apparently their favourite
nesting-haunts, but I have found them breeding on toon (_Cedrela
toona_) and other trees. Internally the nest is always a deep cup,
from 3 to 31/4 inches in diameter, and from 13/4 to 2-1/8 deep. The cavity
is always circular and regular, and lined with fine grass. Externally
the nests vary greatly; they are always massive, but some are compact
and of moderate dimensions externally, say not exceeding 51/2 inches in
diameter, while others are loose and straggling, with a diameter of
fully 8 inches. Grass-stems, fine twigs, cotton-wool, old rags, dead
leaves, pieces of snake's skin, and all kinds of odds and ends are
incorporated in the structure, which is generally more or less
strongly bound together by fine tow-like vegetable fibre. Some nests
indeed are so closely put together that they might almost be rolled
about without injury, while others again are so loose that it is
scarcely possible to move them from the fork in which they are wedged
without pulling them to pieces.

I have innumerable notes about the nests of this Shrike, of which I
reproduce two or three.

"_Etawah, March 18th_.--The nest was on a babool tree, some 10 feet
from the ground, on one of the outside branches; an exterior framework
of very thorny babool twigs, and within a very warm deep circular nest
made almost entirely of sun (_Crotalaria juncea_) fibre, a sort of
fine tow, and flocks of cotton-wool, there being fully as much of this
latter as of the former; a few fine grass-stems are interwoven; there
are a few human and a few sleep's wool hairs at the bottom as a sort
of lining. The cavity of the nest