16 COBVID^). 



small end. They are moderately broad ovals, and vary from 1-19 

 to 1-35 in length, and from O93 to 1-08 in breadth. 



" The nests were all alike, thick solid structures of twigs and 

 branches, lined with finer twigs about 8 or 9 inches in diameter, 

 and placed invariably at the top of tall straight saplings of teak, 

 pynkado (Xylia dolabriformis), and other trees at a height of about 

 15 feet from the ground." 



All the eggs of the Burmese bird that I have seen, nine taken by 

 Major Bingham, were of one and the same type. The eggs broad 

 ovals, in most cases pointed towards the small end. The shell 

 fine, but as a rule with scarcely any perceptible gloss. The ground- 

 colour a delicate creamy white. The markings moderate-sized 

 blotches, spots, streaks, and specks, as a rule comparatively dense 

 about one, generally the large, end, where only as a rule any at all 

 considerable sized blotches occur, elsewhere more or less sparsely 

 set, and generally of a speckly character. The markings are of 

 two colours : brown, varying in shade in different eggs, olive-yel- 

 lowish, chocolate, and a grey, equally varying in different eggs from 

 pale purple to pale sepia. None of my eggs of the Himalayan bird 

 (I have unfortunately but few of these) correspond at all closely 

 with these. 



13. Urocissa flavirostris (Bl.). The Yellow-billed Blue Magpie. 



Urocissa flavirostris (Bl.\ Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 310 ; Hume. Rouqh 

 Draft N. $ E. no. 672. 



The Yellow-billed Blue Magpie breeds throughout the lower 

 ranges of the Himalayes in well-wooded localities from Hazara to 

 Bhootan, and very likely further east still, from April to August, 

 mostly however, I think, laying in May. The nest, which is 

 rather coarse and large, made of sticks and lined with fine grass or 

 grass-roots, is, so far as my experience goes, commonly 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 5000 

 feet ; as a rule they are a good deal higher up. 



They lay from four to six eggs, but the usual number is five. 



Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes : " The Yellow-billed Blue 

 Magpie breeds commonly about Murree. I have never seen the 

 bird below 6000 feet in the breeding-season. They do not com- 

 mence laying till May, and I have taken eggs nearly fresh as late 

 as the 15th August. I do not think the bird breeds twice, as the 

 earliest eggs taken were found on tbe 10th May. 



" They build in hill oaks as a rule, the height of the nest from 

 the ground varying much, some being as low as 10 feet, others 

 nearer 30 feet. The hen bird sits close, and sometimes (when the 

 nest is high up) does not even leave the nest when the tree is 

 struck below. The nest is a rough structure built close to the 

 trunk, externally consisting of twigs and roots and lined with 

 fibres. The egg-cavity is circular and shallow, not at all neatly 



