DENDBOCITTA. 21 



of this bird : — The bird flew off immediately we approached the 

 tree, and never appeared again. The nest viewed from below 

 looked larger ; this is owing to dry hahool twigs or rather small 

 branches (some of them having thorns from an inch to 2 inches 

 long !) haAiiig been used as a foundation, and actually encirchng 

 the nest, no doubt by way of protection against vermin ; some of 

 these thorny twigs Mere a foot long, and they had to be removed 

 piecemeal before the nest proper could be got at. The egg-cavity 

 is deep, measuring 5 inches in depth by 4 in breadth inside mea- 

 surement ; it is well lined with khus grass.'' 



JMajm* Bingham says : — 



" Common as is this bird I have only found one nest, and that 

 was at Allahabad on the 9th July, and contained one half-fledged 

 young one and an addled egg. The nest, which was placed at the 

 very top of a large mango-tree, was constructed of branches and 

 twigs of the same lined with fine grass-roots. The egg is a yellowish 

 white, thickly speckled, chiefly at the large end, with rusty. Length 

 1-10 by 0-82 in breadth." 



Colonel Butler tells us that it " breeds in Sind, in the hot 

 weather. Mr. Doig took a nest containing three fresh eggs on the 

 1st May, 1878. The eggs, which seem to me to be remarkably 

 small for the size of the bird, are of the first type mentioned in 

 Eough Draft of ' Nests and Eggs,' p. 422," 



Lieut. II. E. Barnes says in his ' Birds of Bombay : ' — " In Sind 

 they breed during May and June, always choosing babool trees, 

 placing the nest in a stoutish fork near the top ; they are composed 

 at the bottom of thorny twigs, which form a sort of foundation 

 upon which the true nest is built ; the latter consists of fine twigs 

 lined with grass-roots ; the nest is frequently of large size." 



Mr. G, W. Yidal, writing of the South Konkan, says : — " Com- 

 mon about all well-wooded villages from coast to Ghats. Breeds 

 in April." 



AVith regard to Cachar Mr. Inglis writes : — " This Magpie is 

 very common in all the neighbouring villages, but I have not often 

 seen it in the jungles. It remains all the year and breeds during 

 April and May." 



The eggs are typically somewhat elongated ovals, a good deal 

 pointed towards the small end. They vary extraordinarily in 

 colour and character, as well as extent of markings, but, as remarked 

 when speaking of the Eaven, all the eggs out of the same nest 

 closely resemble each other, while the eggs of different nests are 

 almost invariably markedly distinct. There are, however, two 

 leading types — the one in which the markings are bright red, 

 brownish red, or pale pinkish purple ; and the other in which they 

 are olive-brown and pale purplish brown. In the first type the 

 ground-colour is either pale salmon, or else very pale greenish 

 white, and the markings are either bold blotches, more or less con- 

 fluent at the large end, where they are far most numerous, and 

 only a few specks and spots towards the smaller end, or they are 

 spots and small blotches thickly distributed over the whole surface. 



