Lanius cristatus, _Linn., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 406: _Hume, Rough Draft
N. & E._ no. 261.
I am induced to notice this species, the Brown Shrike, although I
possess no detailed information as to its nidification, in consequence
of Lord Walden's remarks on this subject in 'The Ibis' of 1867. He
says "Does it, then, cross the vast ranges of the Himalaya in its
northern migration? or does it not rather find on the southern slopes
and in the valleys of those mountains all the conditions suitable for
nesting?"; and he adds in a note, "It is extremely doubtful whether
any passerine bird which frequents the plains of India during the
cooler months crosses to the north of the snowy ranges of the Himalaya
after quitting the plains to escape the rainy season or the intense
heat of summer."
Now, it is quite certain, as I have shown in 'Lahore to Yarkand,' that
several of our Indian passerine birds do cross the entire succession
of Snowy Ranges which divide the plains of India from Central Asia,
and it is tolerably certain from my researches and those of numerous
contributors that _L. cristatus_ breeds _only_ north of these ranges.
True, Tickell gives the following account of the nidification of this
species in the plains of India:--
"Nest found in large bushes or thickets, shallow, circular, 4 inches
in diameter, rather coarsely made of fine twigs and grass. Eggs three,
ordinary; 29/32 by 21/32: pale rose-colour, thickly sprinkled
with blood-red spots, with a darkish livid zone at the larger
end.--_June_." But Tickell, though he warns us at the commencement
of his paper (Journal As. Soc. 1848, p. 297) of the "attempts at
duplicity of which the wary oologist must take good heed," gives the
egg of the Sarus as plain white, and says he has seen upwards of a
dozen like this, those of the Roller as full deep Antwerp blue, those
of _Cypselus palmarum_ as white with large spots of deep claret-brown,
and so on, and it is quite clear that his supposed eggs and nest of
_L. cristatus_ belonged to one of the Bulbuls.
Of more than fifty oologists who have collected for me at different
times in hills and plains, from the Nilghiris to Huzára on the one
side, and to Sikhim on the other, not one has ever met with a nest of
_L. cristatus_. This is doubtless purely negative evidence, but it is
still entitled to considerable weight.
From the valleys of the Beas and the Sutlej, as also from Kumaon and
Gurhwal, these Shrikes seem to disappear entirely during the summer,
and they are then, as we also know, found breeding in Yarkand. It is
only in the latter part of the autumn that they reappear in the former
named localities, finding their way by the commencement of the cold
season to the foot of the hills.
Mr. R. Thompson, to quote one of many close observers, remarks:--"This
bird appears regularly at Huldwanee and Rumnugger at the foot of the
Kumaon Hills during the cold weather, confining itself to thick hedges
and deep groves of trees. Where it goes to in summer I cannot say, it
certainly does not remain in our hills."