505 



local it is extremely abundant in the wooded districts, becoming rare in such cultivated portions 

 to the east as Valencia and Murcia." It occurs also in Portugal, where, as in Spain, its distribu- 

 tion is very local. The Rev. A. C. Smith writes (Ibis, 1868, p. 447) as follows : — " This beautiful 

 bird was the chief prize I proposed to myself to procure before I started for Portugal, as I fondly 

 hoped, from Mr. Mathews's account, I should have no difficulty in finding it. But though I 

 wandered for days in search of it in the most likely spots, I never saw it alive ; indeed Professor 

 du Bocage assured me that, though by no means rare, it is very local, and of so exceedingly shy 

 a nature that it is seldom seen, and that, though he has employed collectors to hunt expressly 

 for it, he cannot obtain additions to the three specimens which the Lisbon Museum possesses. 

 Thus, to my chagrin, I left Portugal without a single example, though, when on my return 

 through Madrid, I fell in with three skins and three eggs of this bird at the shop of Seiior 

 Sanchez, in the Calle de Alcala, with whom I had dealings years ago." On the other hand 

 Dr. E. Rey, who met with it in Portugal, writes (J. f. O. 1872, p. 144) that it is " common in 

 Estremadura, near Lisbon, on the Tagus, where they are usually seen in flocks of twenty to 

 thirty individuals, which appear always to frequent the same localities, and revisit these places 

 very regularly, so that when once their haunts are discovered they are easily shot, though other- 

 wise they are extremely difficult to obtain." 



In its habits, though resembling the common Magpie, the present species is also not unlike 

 the Shrikes and Jays, though I cannot agree with Dr. Rey, who says that it bears far closer 

 affinity to these latter than to the true Magpies. I found it breeding near Madrid, not exactly 

 in colonies, but wherever one pair was breeding one or two others were sure to be in the imme- 

 diate vicinity. Most of the nests were placed in poplars which skirted the walks in the Royal 

 Gardens, and were placed in the branches close to the main trunk, at from ten to twenty feet 

 from the ground. "When I approached the nest the female would usually sit until I touched the 

 tree, and then slipped silently off, uttering no sound, and either settled in some tree not far 

 distant, or flew round in evident dismay at being disturbed. The nests were tolerably well con- 

 structed of dry sticks interwoven with dried plants and lined with grass, in general form and 

 mode of construction bearing great resemblance to the nest of our common Jay (Garrulm 

 glandarius). One nest, taken close to the house of the Royal keeper, was neatly ornamented 

 and partly lined with kid-clippings, the remnants of work done by the keeper's daughters, who 

 were employed in the manufacture of gloves. The usual number of eggs deposited is five or six ; 

 but in two nests I found seven. The keeper, Manuel de la Torre, told me that the Great 

 Spotted Cuckoo occasionally deposits its eggs in the nest of this species; but Mr. Howard 

 Saunders writes (Ibis, 1871, p. 222) that, so far as his experience goes, this is never the case. 

 In Portugal, however, this sometimes occurs ; and Dr. E. Rey showed me several sittings of 

 Azure-winged Magpies' eggs, with each of which was a single egg of the Great Spotted Cuckoo ; 

 and he writes (J. f. O. 1872, p. 144) that all the nests he obtained were placed in cork-trees, at 

 an altitude of from ten to twenty-five feet, and were constructed of a few dry sticks worked 

 together with clay in the foundation and interwoven with plants and moss, the inner lining 

 consisting chiefly of brown sheep's or goat's wool. He obtained more than eighty nests, none of 

 which contained more than seven eggs, the usual number being five or six, most frequently the 

 latter number. Three nests contained each an egg of the Great Spotted Cuckoo. 



t2 



