TJBOOISSA. 15 



speckled with brown dashes confluent at the larger end, the ends 

 nearly equal in size. It is very terrene in its habits, feeding almost 

 entirely on the ground." 



Colonel G-. P. L. Marshall remarks : — 



" The Eed-billed Blue Magpie is, as far as I know, an early 

 breeder at Naini Tal ; common as the bird is I have only found 

 one nest and that on the 24th April ; it was a shallow slenderly 

 built structure of fine roots, chiefly of maiden-hair fern, in a rough 

 outer casiug of twigs, placed on a horizontal bough overhanging a 

 nullah about fifteen feet from the ground. The tree had mode- 

 rately dense foliage, and wa3 about twenty-five feet high in a small 

 clump on a hillside covered with low scrub at 5000 feet elevation 

 above the sea. Around the nest several small boughs and twigs 

 grew out, and being very slight in structure it was not easy to see. 

 The old bird sat very close. There were six eggs in the nest about 

 halWncubated ; in two of them the markings were densest at the 

 small end. The egg-cavity was 6 inches in diameter by about 1| 

 deep. On the 5th June I saw old birds accompanied by young 

 ones able to fly, but without the long tails." 



The eggs of this species much resemble those of the European 

 Magpie, but are considerably smaller. They are broad, rather 

 perfect ovals, somewhat elongated and pointed in many specimens. 

 They exhibit but little gloss. The ground-colour varies much, but 

 in all the examples that I possess, which I owe to Captain Hutton's 

 kindness, it is either of a yellowish-cream, pale cafe uu lail or buff 

 colour, or pale dull greenish. The ground is profusely blotched, 

 spotted, and streaked (the general character of the markings being 

 striations parallel to the major axis), with various shades of reddish 

 and yellowish brown aud pale inky purple. The markings vary 

 much in intensity as well as in frequency, some being so closely 

 set as to hide the greater part of the ground-colour ; but iu the 

 majority of the eggs they are more or less confluent at the large 

 end, where they form a comparatively dark, irregular blotchy 

 zone. 



The eggs vary from 1-25 to 1-4 in length, and from 0-89 to 

 0*96 in breadth; but the average of 11 eggs is 1*33 by 0'93. 



Major Bingham, referring to the Burmese Magpie, which has 

 been separated under by the name of U. magnirostris, says : — 



" This species I have only found common in the Thoungyeen 

 Valley. Elsewhere it seemed to me scarce. Below I give a note 

 about its breeding. 



" I have found three nests of this handsome Magpie — two on 

 the bank of the Meplay choung on the 14th April, 1879, and 5th 

 March, 1880, respectively, and one near Meeawuddy on the 

 Thoungyeen river on the 19th March, 1880. 



" The first contained three, the second four, and the third two 



" These are all of the same type, dead white, with pale claret- 

 coloured dashes and spots rather washed-out looking, and lying 

 chiefly at the large end. One egg has the spots thicker at the 



