DENDROCITTA. ]35 



coverts ; under wing coverts yellowish. Edge of the wing and upper wing 

 coverts washed with lavender. Upper surface lavender, tinged with azure 

 blue; wings the same; primaries externally greyish for their apical two-thirds, 

 the secondaries tipped with white; upper tail coverts azure blue with a 

 narrow subterminal bar of bluish white and tipped with black ; tail azure blue, 

 broadly tipped with white ; all but the two centre feathers subterminally barred 

 with black. Legs orange yellow ; bill yellow ; irides brownish red. 



Length 20 inches; wing 7-3 ; tail 16 ; tarsus 1-9; culmen 1-45. 



Nab. The Himalaya Mountains, Nepal, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kumaon, 

 Kooloo, Ladakh, and Cashmere. (Sharpe.) 



Gen. Dendrocitta. Gould. 



Base of the culmen unfeathered ; middle tail feathers broad at the ends ; 

 nostrils concealed by incumbent feathers ; 5th and 6th quills longest ; secon- 

 daries nearly as long as the primaries. 



134. Dendrocitta rufa, Scop. Del. Fauna el Flor. Jnsubr. ii. p. 86 ; 

 HartL Syst. Verz. p. 63; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. 314, No. 674; Murray, Vert. 

 Zool. Sind, p. 177 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. iii. p. 76 ; Gray, Handlist B. 

 Br. Mus- ii. p. 8 ; Hume, Sir. F. i. pp. 206, 386 ; Murray, Ildbk. Zool., fyc., 

 Sind, p. 174. Crypsirrhina pallida, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xv. p. 30. Dendrocitta 

 pallida, Blyth, Cat. Mus. A. S. B. p. 336 ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 3 15, No. 675. 

 The COMMON INDIAN MAGPIE. 



Adult. Head, neck all round, part of upper back, chin, throat, breast and 

 ear coverts dark sooty brown, paler on the upper back ; lores blackish brown ; 

 back and scapulars orange brown ; rump and upper tail coverts bright orange 

 or yellowish buff; abdomen and under tail and thigh coverts, like the rump, 

 orange, yellowish buff or dark ferruginous ; primaries and secondaries black ; 

 tertiaries black, greyish white on their outer webs ; wing coverts white ; edge of 

 the wing and under wing coverts greyish white ; tail greyish white, or grey, the 

 centre feathers elongated much beyond the rest, and all broadly tipped with 

 black ; bill black ; legs slaty ; irides blood-red. 



Length. 16 17 inches; wing 5-9; tail 10; tarsus i 45 ; bill at front i to 

 1*25. The young is much paler throughout, and has the tail feathers tipped 

 whitish buff. 



Had. The whole of India, through Assam and Burmah to Tennaserim and 

 Cashmere; Sind, Punjab, N.-W. Provinces, Bengal, Southern India, Travan- 

 core, Central India, Kutch, Kattiawar, Rajputana, Concan, and Deccan. 



The common Indian Magpie is an inhabitant of forests as well as of open 

 country, and is usually found in small flocks of 5 or 6. It nests on trees, select 

 ing the highest, and generally in the vicinity of water, for what reason it is 



