68 



FOREIGN BIRDS 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 April 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 blotches tinder 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 underlying 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, 1.20 x 0.96, 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 

 structure, composed of thin twigs and tendrils." 



The London Zoological Society purchased an example 

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

 is rarely imported, but nevertheless may be met with 

 at all the zoological gardens and the larger dealers. 



YEIXOW-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 subterminal 

 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 and breast 

 black, with a large neutral white patch faintly tinted 

 with blue ; underparts otherwise ashy grey, paler on 

 abdomen and under tail-coverts ; under wing-coverts 

 yellowish ; edge of wing tinted with lavender ; bill 

 yellow; feet orange-yellow; irides brownish-red. 

 Female not differentiated ; probably with stronger and 

 shorter bill than the male. Hab., Himalayas. 



Jerdon ("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., and 

 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 with 

 brown." 



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

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

 throughout the lower ranges of the Himalayas in well- 

 vrooded localities from Hazara to Bhootan, and very 

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



* Thaae are rendered Tying-jongriny and Piangingjabbring, 

 at the he(J of Jerdon's accouat of the species. A. G. B. 



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 denseJy-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 r 

 and larger than the average or eggs of either Den- 

 drocitta rufa or D. himalayensis. 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 

 markings 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 the large end, and only 

 a few spots and specks of the same colour scattered 

 about the rest of the egg. All kinds of intermediate 

 varieties occur. The texture of the shell is fine and 

 compact, 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 1.3 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 (Cryptorhina afro). 



Glossy ipurplish-lbilaek ; wing -.coverts slightly greenish * 

 primacies brown, tapped with black ; secondaries with 

 indications of bars when seen in certain lights ; upper 

 and under tail-co vents, tail (Ibanred in certain lights), 

 and under wing-coverts brown ; flights below with 

 greyash inner webs, paler towards the base ; bill black : 

 feet leaden -Ibladk ; irides crimson, with a faint external 

 lilacine tint. Female rnudh smaller, and with black- 

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

 and Senegambia. 



Heuglin observes (" Ornithologie Nord-Ost Afrikas," 

 pp. 492. 493): "The Senegal Magpie is an extremely 

 live'ly bird, dn its behaviour much reminding 01 

 Lamprotornis cenea. It is found i.n Southern Kordofian, 

 along ithe whole of the White Nile and Gazelle River. 

 a;t the upper Bahr el Azrag, and, 'according to B.iippetll T 

 also in Abyssinia. Living in pairs and small companies, 

 the Soharal* assembles together, after the completion 

 of the business of breeding at the commencement of the 

 rainy season (June), in great flocks, disappears for 

 several months, and reappears again in the dry season. 

 Its favourite resorts are flat pastures with Doleb palms 

 (Borassus cethiopicus) . in the dry clusters of leaves of 

 which it lives amicably together with Falco ruficollis, 

 Columba guinea, and some large bats, and there nestts. 

 The breeding season occurs in the months of March to 

 June ; the nest itself, which is situated between the lea.f- 

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

 as the smooth Doleb trunks are almost unoliniibaible : 

 the entrance to the nest is frequently hedged vrittlh- 

 thorns. Before the commencement of daybreak these, 

 birds are already lively and occupy themselves, like 

 Jackdaws, in chattering, whistling, and croaking, and 

 flit-ting from one branch to another. With the dawn 

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



' Arabian name for the bird. 



