rtial they are to raw meat, and more singular
to see the expert way in which they catch up the meat with the claws
of either leg, and hold it from them while they devour it piecemeal.
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 0.88 to 0.93 of an inch in length, and from 0.68
to 0.81 of an inch in breadth. Colour white or pale greenish white,
slightly ringed and spotted with yellowish grey and neutral tint. Nest
of roots, coarse grass, rags, cotton, &c., lined with fine grass, 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 grass and fine stalks of small plants roughly put
together, bits of rag, shreds of fine bark, and lined with very fine
grass-seed stalks; internal diameter 3 inches, external 6 inches;
depth 21/2 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 grass-seed ears, internally of finer grass; 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 thorny 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 grass,
moss, cotton-wool, thistle-down, rags, cows' hair,