DENDROCITIA. 49 
Vernacular names. Vahtwh and Chand (Sind); Gokurayi, 
Konda-kati-gada (Tel.); Mootri (Lucknow) ; Jaha-lat (Hindi). 
Description. The whole head and neck with the upper breast, 
sooty-brown; remainder of the plumage fulvous or reddish 
fulvous, darker on the back and scapulars; wing-coverts greyish- 
white; wing-quills dark brown, the outer webs of the inner 
secondaries grey; tail pale ashy-grey, darkest at the base, broadly 
tipped with black. 
Colours of soft parts. Iris brown to red-brown; bill dark slaty 
horn-colour, albescent at the base ; mouth flesh- “colour: eyelids 
plumbeous ; legs dark brown, claws horn-colour. 
Measurements. Length from 365 to 450mm., according to 
leneth of tail which varies from 193 to 257 mm., in one case 
actually 305 mm.; wing from 137 to 159 mm., and in the 
one case 177 mm.; tarsus about 33 mra.; culmen about 28 mm. 
The young are duller in colour than the adults, the head is 
lighter brown and the lateral tail-feathers are tipped with white 
or bufty-white. 
Distribution. The whole of Southern India, North to, and 
including, Orissa; West to Sind, Punjab and Afghanistan and 
thence East to the South of Kashmir, Simla Hills and Garhwal. 
Nidification. In the southern part of their range these Magpies 
breed in February and March, whilst further north they breed 
principally in May and June. As, however, with so many common 
birds, their breeding extends over a prolonged period and eggs are 
laid both later and earlier than the above months. ‘The nest is a 
rather untidy, but not very bulky, affair of twigs, roots and other 
material, carelessly interwoven and lined with roots and sometimes 
a scrap or two of wool. Generally they are placed well up in 
trees of some size, but often in thorn hedges, Bér bushes or cactus 
clumps. 
In the north the birds lay three to five eggs, most often four, 
but in the seuth they lay fewer and generally only two or three. 
The majority are of two distinet types: : one pale greenish in 
eround-colour with blotches and spots of light and dace grey- 
brown; the other pale reddish white or Simon: colour with 
blotches of reddish and dark brown and others, underlying, of 
lilac and neutral tint. 
150 eggs average 29-2 x 21:7 mm. 
Habits. This Magpie is more of a plains than a mountain 
bird, but in some parts of the Himalayas it is said to wander up to 
as high as 7,000 feet and to breed at this height. It is a sociable, 
noisy bird but many of its notes are very “musical, though it can 
give vent to most unmusical discords at times. Its aretial call is an 
oft- repeated ‘‘bob-a-link bob-a-link ” as it flies from one bush to 
another, the cry being repeated by each member of the flock in 
turn. They are prac tically omnivorous and are arrant egg and 
nestling thieves during the breeding seasons of the smaller birds. 
Olas E 
