J28 Lieut, R. E. Vauglian and Staff-Surg. K, H. Jones 



dietary. The flight is very graceful^, especially when de- 

 scendiug, the long tail streaming out behiud seems to 

 accentuate the gentle curves^ which are its peculiar cha- 

 racteristic. Wheu hopping about the branches of a tree 

 the Blue Magpie looks rather clums}^ as if much incom- 

 moded by the inordinate length of its tail. On the ground 

 this bird invariably advances by a series of clumsy hops, 

 apparently it never walks, like the Common Magpie. When 

 at rest iu a tree or on the ground the tail is well folded, 

 but on the wing the outer and shorter rectrices are in- 

 variably spread out, much to its advantage. The Chinese 

 Blue Magpie breeds commonly at Hong Kong, though from 

 the extent of the woods and the flimsy nature of its con- 

 struction, the nest is very hard to find. 



From the habit of going about in small parties it is 

 difiiciilt to say when pairing takes place, but the earliest 

 nests are built at the end of March or the beginning 

 of April, antl breeding goes on through INIay, June, July, 

 and August. It is undovdjtedly double-brooded in most 

 cases. The nest is a slight affair, made of thin twigs and 

 lined with the aerial rootlets of the False Banyan tree and 

 with finer twigs. 



Almost always it is possible to see through the nest 

 in every direction. In construction it is very fiat and the 

 central hollow containing the eggs is very shallow'. A 

 favourite nesting-site is the topmost twig of a thin sapling, 

 but not infrequently the extremity of a horizontal bough is 

 selected, and only once was the nest found in a strong fork 

 near the main trunk. Firs are, perhaps, the favourites with 

 this species, but a variety of deciduous trees has also been 

 noted as used. 



Both birds assist in building the nest, which is usually 

 about twenty feet from the ground, and the young of a 

 previous brood have been observed sitting round a nest in 

 process of construction. 



The bird, unless the eggs are ver}^ hard-set, usually slips 

 from the nest without any demonstration, and then some- 

 times chatters from a distance or files overhead scolding. 



