12 THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



in spite of her presence and presumably not altogether 

 disinterested enquiries into the progress of their home 

 and family arrangements. She has no particular ill- 

 wishers herself, for birds of the crow kind are seldom at- 

 tacked by others, unless it be by the larger owls who 

 steal upon them under cover of darkness ; but the king- 

 crow, in exercise of his office of supervisor of all doubtful 

 characters in the feathered world, has been seen to harry 

 her, clinging to her tail and being thus towed 

 along for some distance. Whatever be the cause, although 

 our Indian Magpie favours thorny twigs for building with, 

 she does not, like the European bird, construct a dome 

 with them over her nest, but sticks to the usual corvine 

 pattern of an open cup. In the matter of eggs, however, 

 she boldly defies convention, for she will have them with the 

 pale ground colour tinted either pink or green, and enrich- 

 ed with spots varying in hue from bright red to dull brown. 

 In respect to refreshments, on the other hand, besides 

 exhibiting the family readiness to take whatever comes 

 to hand, she is a true crow in having as frugal a mind as 

 John Gilpin's wife, and in time of plenty will lay up stores 

 for a rainy day. This I found out from the only specimen 

 of the bird I ever kept, discovering that it had laid up bits 

 of meat in various parts of its large cage soon ofter receiv- 

 ing the ration. 



To whatever cause we may ascribe the result, the com- 

 mon Indian Pie is a very successful bird, and extends its 

 range nearly all over the Empire from Cashmere to Tenas- 

 serim ; and, although quite at home in the sweltering at- 

 mosphere of the plains, ascends the Himalayas up to 7,000 



