CISSA. DENDEOCITTA. 19 



moderately fine roots ; the cavity was 5 iache3 by 4, and about 1 

 in depth. 



The eggs received from Major Bingham, as also others received 

 from Sikhim, where they were procured by Mr. Mandelli on the 21st 

 and 28th of April, are ratber broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards 

 the small end. The shell is fine, but has only a lictle gloss. The 

 ground-colour is white or slightly greyish white, and they are uni- 

 formly freckled all over with very pale yellowish and greyish brown. 

 The freeklings are always somewhat densest at the large end, where 

 in some eggs they form a dull brown cap or zone. In some esrgs 

 the markings are everywhere denser, in some sparser, so that some 

 eggs look yellower or browner, and others palsr. 



The eggs are altogether of the Garruline type, not of that of 

 the Denclrocitta or Urocissa type. I have eggs of G. lanceolatws, 

 that but for being smaller precisely match some of the Cissa eggs. 

 Jerdon is, I think, certainly wrong in placing Gissa between Uro- 

 cissa and Dendrocitta, the eggs of which two last are of the same 

 and quite a distinct type*. 



The eggs vary from 1-15 to 1-26 in length, and from 0-9 to 0-95 

 in breadth, but the average of eight is 1-21 by 0-92. 



15. Cissa ornata (Wagler). The Geyhnese Magpie. 

 Cissa ornata ( Waffl), Hume, Cat. no. 673 bis. 



Colonel Legge writes in his ' Birds of Ceylon ' :— " This bird 

 breeds during the cool season. I found its nest in the Kandapolla 

 jungles in January ; it was situated in a fork of the top branch of 

 a tall sapling, about 45 feet in height, and was a tolerably bulky 

 structure, externally made of small sticks, in the centre of which 

 was a deep cup 5 inches in diameter by 2| in depth, made entirely 

 of fine roots ; there was but one egg in the nest, which unfortu- 

 nately got broken in being lowered to the ground. It was ovate 

 and slightly pyriforin, of a faded bluish-green ground thickly spotted 

 all over with very light umber-brown over larger spots of bluish- 

 grey. It measured 0-98 inch in diameter by about 1-3 in length." 



16. Dendrocitta rufa (Scop.). The Indian Tree-pie. 



Dendrocitta rufa (Scop.), Jerd. B. hid. ii, p. 314; Hume, JRouyh 

 Notes N. fy E. no. 674. 



The Indian Tree-pie breeds throughout the continent of India, 

 alike in the plains and in the hills, up to an elevation of 6000 or 

 7000 feet. 



* I am responsible, and not Mr. Hume, for calling this bird a Magpie. 

 Jerdon calls it a Jay, but places it among the Magpies, which is, I consider, its 

 proper position, notwithstanding the colour of its eggs. — Ed. 



2* 



