132 



The Jungle Crow does not affect forests only, but it also frequents towns 

 and villages, associated with the House Crow. Nesting and breeding season 

 the same ; also the eggs, though slightly larger. 



Gen. Nucifraga. Briss, 



Outer secondaries longer than the inner ; bill conical, nearly straight ; 

 tip blunt; base of bill with short incumbent feathers, under which the nostrils 

 are hidden. 



130. Nucifraga hemispila, Vigors, P. z. S. 1830, p. 8; Gould. 



Cent. Him. B. pi. 36; Hodgs. in Gray's ZooL Misc. p. 84; Gray, Cat. B. 

 Nepal ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 304; Hume, Nests and Eggs, 2nd. B. ii. p. 415 ; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. iii. p. 54, The NUTCRACKER. 



Crown of the head black ; bristles over the nostrils blackish, streaked with 

 white ; lores white ; sides of face and neck blackish brown, streaked with white ; 

 throat and under surface of body chocolate brown ; the chin streaked with 

 white ; the breast tipped with triangular spots of white, the abdomen uniform 

 brown. Under tail coverts white. Back and scapulars brown, streaked on the 

 mantle with white ; lower back, rump and upper tail coverts brown, the latter 

 glossed with greenish ; wings glossy greenish black ; under wing coverts dark 

 brown, the outermost tipped with white ; tail greenish black, all the feathers 

 except the two central ones with a broad white tip increasing in width till the 

 outermost is white for the terminal half. Bill and feet horny black j irides 

 reddish brown. 



Length. 16 inches; wing 8-4; tail 6*6; tarsus 1*75; culmen r8 (Sharpe). 



Hab. The Himalaya Mountains. Recorded from Bengal (Darjeeling), 

 Sikkim, N.-W. Himalayas and Nepal. 



The Himalayan Nutcracker like its congeners lives on fruit, seeds, berries 

 and insects generally. Nuts and other hard seeds it fixes in the crevice of a 

 tree, and pecks at it till the shell is broken. It nests in holes of trees, and 

 lays from 5 to 6 eggs, of a yellowish grey colour, spotted with lighter or darker 



shades of brown. 



fit rHt&M&J* vvn^ttl 



Gen. Pica Sriss. 



Wings short ; tail long, graduated, the centre feathers longest. Head not 

 crested. Eye without a nude space. 1st primary sinuated and ending in a long 

 point. Bill as in Corvus, but more slender. 



131. Pica rustica, Scop. Ann. i. p. 38 ; Dresser Birds Eur. part xxii. ; 

 id. Ibis, 1875, p. 238 ; Blanf. Zool. E. Persia, p. 264. Corvus pica, Lin. S. N. 

 i. p. 157 i Wilson Am. Orn. iv. p. 75, pi. xxxv. fig. 2. Pica caudata, Keys. u. 

 Bias. Wtrb. Eur.ip. $$', Gould, Birds Eur. iii. pi. 216. Pica bottanensis, 

 Deless, Rev. Zool. ii. p. loo ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 305, No. 668. Pica pica, 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vol. iii. p. 62. The MAGPIE. 



7? 



