FOREIGN BIEDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



splashes of somewhat pale and dull reddish-brown and 

 reddish-grey (underlying). The markings on four eggs 

 are concentrated on the large end, where they form a 

 well-marked crown or cap, and where the underlying 

 splashes are confluent, the rest of the egg being but 

 sparsely marked. In the fifth egg there is a broad ring 

 round the small end, the rest of the egg, as in the 

 others, being but lightly marked. In shape these eggs 

 are ovate, inclining to oval, one being almost oval. 

 They measure 1.27 x 0.93, 1.26 x 0.91, 1.25 x 0.91, and 

 1.23 X 0.92 inch. 



" On the 28th AprU following another clutch of five 

 eggs was taken from a nest placed on a bamboo at a 

 height of about 20 ft. from the ground. These eggs, 

 which were very slightly incubated, have a lighter 

 ground-colour than the above, one egg markedly so. 

 The spots are much more numerous and much smaller. 

 Three of them have a rough ring of reddish-grey under- 

 lying blotohes -under the reddish-brown spots, which 

 are larger there than on the rest of the egg. In the 

 fifth and light-coloured egg this ring is very slight, and 

 the surface and underlying markings are small, there 

 being only three or four imderlying blotches. These 

 are all broader eggs, with a tendency to being oval, 

 except one, which is a broad ovate. They measure 

 1.22x0.95, 1.21x0.93, 1.20x0.96, and 1.18 x 0.93 

 (two eggs) inch. We did not take the nest, which 

 appeared to be built in the usual style, and was a slight 

 sti-ucture, composed of thin twigs and tendrils." 



The London Zoological Society purchased an example 

 of this biixl in February, 1861. Russ observes that it 

 is rarely imported, but nevertheless may be met iwith 

 at all the zoological gardens and the larger dealers. 



Yeliow-billed Blue Pie (Urocissa Aavirostris). 



Above bluish-lavender ; apical two-thirds of primaries 

 greyish-white and white-tipped externally ; secondaries 

 more distinctly white-tipped ; upper tail-coverts azure 

 blue tipped with black, and with a narrow subtermina! 

 bluish-white bar ; tail azure blue with broad white 

 tips ; all excepting the two central feathers with a sub- 

 terminal black bar, preceded on inner web by an ill- 

 defined white bar ; head, neck, mantle amid breast 

 lilack, with a large neutral white patch faintly tinted 

 with blue ; underparts otherwise ashy grey, paler on 

 abdomen and inider tail-coverts ; under wing-coverts 

 yellowish ; edge of wing tinted with lavender ; bill 

 yellow; feet orange-yellow; irides hi-ownish-red . 

 Female not difiierentiated ; probably with stronger and 

 shorter bill than the male. Hab., Himalayas. 



Jeixion ("Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 311) says: — 

 " It is found in Cashmere and Jummoo, in Kumaon, in 

 parts of Nepal, and in Sikhim, where it is the only 

 species. It occurs about Darjeeling from 6,000 ft. to 

 10,000 ft. or so ; wanders about a good deal, generally 

 flying low, and alighting on low trees and shrubs, some- 

 times on a stone, or the stump of a tree. It lives 

 chiefly on large insects, grasshoppers, locusts, etc., aaid 

 it has a loud, ringing call which the natives attempt 

 to imitate in the names given above.* I had the nest 

 and eggs brought me once. The nest was made of 

 sticks and roots ; the eggs, three in number, were of 

 a greenish-fawn colour, very faintly 'blotched witlx 

 brown." 



Hume states (" Nests and Eggs," Second Edition, Vol. 

 1., pp. 16, 17) : " The Yellow-billed Blue Magpie breeds 

 throughout the lower ranges of the Himalayas in well- 

 •wooded localities from Hazara to Bhootan, and very 

 likely further east still, from April to August, mostly, 



* Theoe are rendentd Tying-jongring and Piangingjatbring. 

 at the heaa of Jerdon'tj a.ccounjt of the species. — .A.. G. B. 



however, I think, laying in May. The nest, -i^ihich is 

 rather coarse and large, made of sticks and lined with 

 fine grass or grass-roots, is, so far as my experience 

 goes, comnionly placed in a fork near the top of some 

 moderate-sized but densely -foliaged tree. 



" I have never found a nest at a lower elevation than 

 about 5,000 ft. ; as a rule, they are a good deal higher 

 up." 



" The eggs are of the ordinary Indian Magpie type, 

 scarcely, if at all, smaller than those of U. occipitalis, 

 and larger than the average or eggs of either Den- 

 drocilla rufa or D. himalaycnsis. Doubtless all kinds 

 of varieties occur, as the eggs of this family are very 

 variable ; but I have only seen two types — in the one 

 the ground is a pale, dingy, yellowish-stone colour, pro- 

 fusely streaked, blotched, and mottled with a somewhat 

 pale brown, more or less olivaceous in some eggs, the 

 mailvings even in this type being generally densest 

 towards the large end, where they form an irregular 

 mottled cap ; in the other type the ground is a very 

 pale greenish-drab colour ; there is a dense confluent 

 raw-sienna-coloured zone round tlie large end, and only 

 a few spots and specks of the same colour scattered 

 about the rest of the egg. All kinds of intennediate 

 varieties occur. The texture of the shell is fine and 

 comi^act, and the eggs are mostly more or less glossy. 



" The eggs vary from 1.22 to 1.48 in length, and from 

 0.8 to 0.96 in breadth ; but the average of twenty- 

 seven eggs is 1.5 X 0.92." 



Three specimens of this species reached the London 

 Zoological Gardens as an exchange in May, 1877 ; in 

 1886 the species arrived at the Amsterdam Gardens ; 

 and in 1893 at those of Berlin. 



PiAPEC (Cryptorliina afra). 



Gioesy ,purplish-lhlack ; /wing-coveita slightly greenish ; 

 primaries bixjiwn, tapped with biack ; secondaries mtih 

 indioaAions of bars when seen in certain light^s ; upper 

 and under taiU-covents, tail (Ibanred in certain lights), 

 ajnd under wing-coverts brown ; flights below with 

 greyish inner welbs, paler toiwarids the base ; bill blaeik ; 

 feet loaden-IWadk ; irides crimson, with a faint ex;teTnal 

 lilacine tint. Female muah smaller, and with blacik- 

 tipped yellow bill and hazel irides. Hab., N.E. Africa; 

 and Senegambia. 



Heuglin observes (" Ornithologie Nord-Ost Afrikae," 

 p.p. 492. 493) : " The iSenogal Magpie is an extremely 

 lively bird, in its behaviom- much reminding one of 

 Lamprnlornis cenea. It is found in Sbuthem Kordoflan, 

 along the whole of the AVhite Nile and Gazelle Raver, 

 ait the upper Bahr el Azrag. and, a:ccoixlin^ to RtippelU 

 also in Abyssinia. Liiving in paii's and small oonipanies, 

 the Sdharal* assembles together, after the completion 

 of the business of breeding at the commencement of the 

 rainy seiason (June), in grealt flocks, disappeai's for 

 several months, and reappears again in the di-y season. 

 Its favourite resorts are flait paftures with Dofeb palm-; 

 {Borassus cethiopicus) . in the dry clus,te,rs of leaves of 

 which it lives amioaWy together with Falco ruHcolliSr 

 Columha guinea, and some large (bats, and there neisits. 

 The breeding season occurs in the momths of March to 

 June ; the nest itself, which is situated between the leaf- 

 sheaths and the trunk, I have never been able to secure, 

 as the smooth Dolub trunks are almost unoliimibalbile : 

 the entrance to the nest is frequently hedged wiitBi 

 thorns. Before the commencement of daybreak these 

 birds are already lively and occupy theanseJves. like 

 Jackdaws, in chattering, whistling, and croaking, and 

 fiititjng fromi one branch to another. AVith the dawn 

 of day they seek tlie ground, with a continuous cry, 



* Arabian name for the bird. 



