14 NATURAL HISTORY. 



during the breeding season, and several instances have been recorded of birds maimed by shot in one 

 season returning to nest in the same place the following year. 



The Magpie is about sixteen inches in length, of a glossy black plumage, slightly greenish on the 

 crown and back, with a slightly coppery tinge on the head ; aci'oss the rump a more or less distinctly 

 marked white band ; scapulas, or shoulder-feathers, white ; wings blue ; the primary coverts and outer 

 web of primaries green ; the inner secondaries bright blue, shading into green ; all the primaries white 

 for nearly their entire length, the tip only black ; tail lustrous dark green, dusky black at the tip, 

 before which the feathers are shaded with copper, purplish-red, or purplish-blue; throat and chest 

 glossy black, with grey streaks on the latter ; rest of under surface white ; the abdomen, thighs, and 

 under wing and tail-coverts black. 



THE TREE-PIES (Dcndrocitta) . 



These birds might almost be called Indian Magpies, as they form one of the genera characteristic 

 of the Indian region. They are plentiful all over India, the Burmese countries, Southern China, and 

 the islands of Hainan and Formosa, and extend as high as Ningpo on the Chinese coast. The presence 

 of a Tree-pie in the last-named locality shows how the Indian Avifauna pushes its way up within the 

 limits of the eastern Palsearctic region, which is supposed to include all China north of the river 

 Yangtze, and many instances can be brought forward of the occurrence of truly Indian genera in 

 Northern China and Japan. The island of Sumatra contains a very fine species of Tree-pie peculiar 

 to itself, viz., D. occipitidis ; and the Andaman Islands also contain a single representative, D. bayleyi. 



In general form the Tree-pies are very like true Magpies (Pica), but they have the middle tail- 

 feathers widened out at the tips in a very remarkable degree. They are noisy birds, and have a variety 

 of notes. They build large nests of sticks, lined with leaves, fine straw, tendrils, roots. &c. 



THE INDIAN TEEE-PIE (UendrocMa rufa). 



This is the commonest and best known species, being found all over India. According to Mr. 

 Hume, it breeds throughout the continent of India, alike in the plains and the hills, up to an elevation 

 of 6,000 or 7,000 feet. Jerdon* states that in the plains it is most common in well-wooded districts : 

 and in the Carnatic and bai-e table-land it is found only occasionally about the larger towns and in 

 hilly jungles ; but as you go farther north, it is to be seen in every grove and garden and about every 

 village. It sometimes occurs singly, very frequently in pairs, and now and then in small parties. It 

 flies from tree to tree with a slow, undulating flight. At times it feeds almost exclusively upon fruit, but 

 at other times on insects, grasshoppers, locusts, mantides, and caterpillars. The natives always assert 

 that it destroys young birds and eggs, and consider it of the Shrike genus. Mr. Smith says he " has 

 known this bird enter a covered verandah of a house, and nip off' half a dozen young geraniums, visit a 

 cage of small birds, begin by stealing the grain, and end by killing and eating the birds, and repeating 

 these visits daily till destroyed." Mr. Buckland stated that he had known it to enter a verandah 

 and catch bats. It has a variety of notes : the usual harsh cry of a Magpie ; a clear, whistling, 

 somewhat metallic call, which Sundevall syllabises into Kohlee-oJi-koor, or Kohlee-oh, the Bengalese 

 into Kotree ; and it has also a feeble, indistinct note at the pairing season, which the male 

 utters, and the female responds to in a sort of chuckle. When several pairs are together they 

 have a curious guttural call, which the Rev. Mr. Phillips, as quoted by Horsfield, says " sounds 

 like kafcak, or keke-kak, repeated several times." It builds a large nest of sticks, generally on lofty 

 trees, and lays three or four eggs of a light greenish fawn-colour, sometimes with a few indistinct pale 

 brown blotches. Buchanan Hamilton says : " The Bengalese women imagine, whenever they hear 

 this bird calling, that it forebodes the approach of religious mendicants, who, by partaking of the 

 fare prepared for the family, will clean the pots used in cooking ; from which circumstance its native 

 name is derived " (Pan scraper) ; hence he calls it Corous mendicantium, or the Beggars' Crow. 



THE COMMON JAY (Garrulus glandarim). 



The present species is by no means rare throughout Europe, and is the only Jay found 

 until, in the neighbourhood of Constantinople and Southern Russia, it occurs along with the 

 Black-headed Jay which replaces it to the eastward. Like all the members of the genus Garrulus, 



* "Birds of India," Vol. I., p. 314. 



