314 BIRDS OF INDIA, 



674. Dendrocitta rufa, Scopoli. 



Corvus, apud Scopoli — Bltth, Cat. 463 — Horsf., Cat. 848 — 

 Pica vagabunda, Vieillot — Gray and Haudav., 111. Ind. Zool. I, 

 pi. 25 — Gould, Cent. Him. Birds, pi. 42 — Jerdon, Cat. 159 — P. 

 rufiventris, Vieillot — Maha-lat, H. i. <?., Large Shrike — Kotri, 

 H. in Bengal — Takka-ehor, Beng., i. e., Eupee thief — also Handi- 

 chacha, Beng., i. e., Pan-scraper, imitative of its cry — Maldab and 

 Chand, Sindh — Gokurayi, Tel., vulgo, Konda-kati-gadu, Tel. 



The Common Indian Magpie. 



Descr. Whole head, neck, and breast, sooty brown, or blackish, 

 deepest on the forehead, chin, and throat, and passing into dusky 

 cinereous ; scapulars, back, and upper tail-coverts dark ferruginous; 

 wing-coverts, and the outer web of the secondaries, light grey, 

 almost whitish in some ; rest of the quills black ; tail ashy-grey, 

 the feathers all broadly tipped with black, least so on the centre 

 feathers ; beneath, from the breast, ferruginous or fulvous. 



Bill black ; irides blood-red ; legs dark slaty. Length 16 inches ; 

 wing 6 ; tail 10 ; bill at front through the frontal bristles 1 £, 

 height •£ inch ; tarsus 1 T 2 ^. 



The Indian Magpie is found throughout all India, from the ex- 

 treme south to the foot of the Himalayas on the east ; but in the 

 North-west ascending apparently to some height. It extends to 

 Assam and even to China. Adams says that it is found in Cashmere, 

 and that it is common on all the lesser ranges of the North-western 

 Himalayas.* In the plains it is most common in well-wooded 

 districts ; and, in the Carnatic, and bare table land, it is only 

 found occasionally about the larger towns, and in hilly jungles ; 

 but, as you go further north, it is to be seen in every grove 

 and garden, and about every village. It occurs singly oc- 

 casionally, 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 



* But these birds should be compared with D. pallida. 



