in and around Lucknow. 191 



tlie European bird, is very ccmmon in the hot weather, but 

 its beautiful basket-shaped nests can, in many cases, be taken 

 only at some risk. I have always found them placed between 

 the slender forks of an outer branch, at heights varying 

 from 10 ft. to 50 ft. from the ground. 



Tlie Indian Magpie, or rather Tree-Pie — for it differs in 

 many points from the enemy of the gamekeeper — makes a 

 rough undomed nest at the top of some tree^ and lays from 

 three to five eggs, which vary in colour from salmon-pink, 

 richly blotched with brown, to a light green feebly marked 

 with grey or brownish green. In the shape of the bill and 

 tail as well as in habits this species differs considerably from 

 Pica. The birds are often to be fotuul going about in small 

 parties, and when undisturbed they have a pretty call, some- 

 thing like " cogee-cog-ee,'^ but if angry or alarmed they 

 make the most disagreeable sound. 



I found all my eggs of the Paddy-bird or Pond-Heron {Ar~ 

 deola grayi) in May and the early part of June. Mr. Hume 

 says that in Upper India the breeding-season is from July to 

 August, and Colonel G. F. L. Marshall does not record nests 

 earlier than June. This species, together with the Indian 

 House-Crow [Corvus impudicus) and the Pied Mynah [Sturno- 

 pastor cow^ra), breed at the same time near Lucknow. They 

 all seem to prefer the neighbourhood of man during the 

 nesting-season ; indeed, I have never got the eggs of the 

 Paddy-bird except from trees situated in some native village. 

 The Crows and Mynahs seem to prefer babool-trees, « liile 

 the Paddy-bird usually selects the sheshum, or, failing 

 that, the mango. 



Wlien the " rains " comraeucej the following may be 

 found breeding : — Ground-Cuckoos, Water-birds in general 

 (except Terns), Weaver-birds, and most of the Warblers. Be- 

 sides these, many of the species already mentioned continue 

 laying. 



Two species of Ground-Cuckoo occur in Lucknow rarely : 

 the Bengal Sirkeer [Taccocua sirkee) and the common 

 Coucal or " Crow-Pheasant''' [Centropus rufpennis). 



The Sirkeer is a very shy bird and not particularly common. 



