26 HABITS AND HAUNTS OF BIRDS 
kinds occur in the plains only and some in the hills. They are arboreal 
in their habits. Most of them prefer forest country, more or less dense, 
but some are found in open slightly wooded country. They build small 
neat cup-shaped nests, often very slight in structure; generally fixed in 
forks where two or three shoots divide near the ends of boughs; but 
sometimes hung from a horizontal fork like a tiny basket. The eggs 
are typically pinkish white, thickly spotted, and blotched with claret 
or purple. Of the green bulbuls (Phydlornis), the eges are white, with 
a few brownish marks, and in the genus Jora the ground colour is 
greyish white, and the markings are very curious, jagged irregular streaks 
of greyish, reddish, or purplish brown. 
Blue birds, (Zrena).—Only one species is found in India, and 
that only in the Malabar forests. They are strictly arboreal in their 
habits and do not migrate. They keep in small parties near the tops 
of high trees. The nest is rough and untidy, not the least like an oriole. 
The eggs are pale greenish, streaked and spotted with dusky. 
Orioles, (Oriolus).—Are permanent residents in India, but they 
wander much in the cold weather. They are quite arboreal in their 
habits, and build in trees a beautitul neat basket-shaped nest. They are 
not gregarious. The evgs are glossy white, with a few dark spots. They 
are found all over India, both in hills and plains. 
Robins, (Copsychus, Kittacincla, Myiomela, Grandala, Thamno- 
bia).—This group comprises many widely differing forms. The magpie 
robin (Copsychus saularis) is found throughout India in wooded tracts 
and gardens. The shama (Kiétacincla macroura) is very local, and inhabits 
only dense thickets in forests. The long-winged blue chat (Graxdala 
celicolor) is a most anomalous form, approaching in some points very 
near the starlings. It is only found near the snow in the alpine Hima- 
layas. The white-tailed blue chat (M/yzomela leucura) is also confined to 
the Himalayas, and is found at rather high altitudes. The true robins 
of India (7hamnobia) are found in the open plains throughout the country. 
All the robins build on or very near the ground often in banks or 
clefts of rocks. They do not migrate; are solitary, and lay spotted or 
more often clouded eggs. 
Bush chats, (Pratincola, Oreiocola).—A group of small birds 
found throughout the plains, especially in dry open country in the cold 
weather, but retiring, as a rule, to the hills to breed. Only a very few 
nestle in the plains. Their habits are very much those of the robins, 
