CISSA. DENDROCITTA. 19 



niodirately line roots ; the cavity was 5 iuches by 4, aucl about 1 

 iu depth. 



Tlie eggs received from Major Bingham, as also others received 

 from Silvhim, where they were procured by Mr. Maiidelli ou the '21st 

 and '2Sbh of April, are rather broad ovals, souiewhafc poiuted towards 

 the small end. The shell is tine, but has only a little gloss. The 

 grouud-colour is white or slightly greyish white, and they are uni- 

 formly freckled all over with very pale yellowish and greyish brown. 

 The frecklings are always somewhat densest at the large end, where 

 in some eggs they form a dull brown cap or zone. In some eL-'gs 

 the markings are everywhere denser, iu some sparser, so that some 

 eggs look yellower or browner, and others paler. 



The eggs are altogether of the Oarruline type, not of that of 

 the Demlrocitta or Urocissa type. I have eg^s of G. laiiceolatas, 

 that but for being smaller precisely match some of the Cissa eggs. 

 Jerdon is, I think, certainly wrong in placing Glssa between Uro- 

 cissa and Bendrocitta, the eggs of which two last are of the same 

 and quite a distinct type*. 



The eggs vary from 1'15 to I'^G in length, and from 0-9 to 0-95 

 in breadth, but the average of eight is 1*21 by 0-92. 



15. Cissa ornata (Wagler). The Oei/louese MiKjjiie. 

 Cissa ornata ( Wufjl.), Hume, Cat. no. C73 bis. 



Colonel Legge writes in his ' Birds of Ceylon ' : — " This bird 

 breeds during the cool season. I found its nest in the Kaudapolla 

 jungles in January ; it was situated in a fork of the top branch of 

 a tall sapling, about 45 feet in height, and was a tolerably bulky 

 structure, externally made of small sticks, in the centre of which 

 was a deep cup 5 inches in diameter by 24 in depth, made entirely 

 of fine roots ; there was but one egg in the nest, which imfortu- 

 nately got broken in being lowered to the ground. It was ovate 

 and slightly pyriform, of a faded bluish-green ground thickly spotted 

 all over with very light umber-brown over larger spots of bluish- 

 grey. It measured 0-98 inch in diameter by ahout 1*3 in length." 



10. Dendrocitta rufa (Scop.). The ludinn Tree-pie. 



Dendrocitta rufa (Scop.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 314; Hume, Roujh 

 Notes N. ^' E. no. 674. 



The Indian Tree-pie breeds throughout the continent of India, 

 alike in the plains and in the hills, up to an elevation of 6000 or 

 7000 feet. 



* I ain responsible, and not Mr. Hume, for calling this bird a Magpie. 

 Jerdon calls it a Jay, but places it among the Magpies, vvhicli is, I cousidej-, ils 

 proper position, notwithstanding the colour of its eggs. — En. 



