THE MALAYAN MAGPIE-ROBIN. 
21 
The young have the breast spotted with fulvous^ and the upper plumage 
brown. 
Bill black ; mouth flesh-colour ; eyelids plumbeous ; iris hazel-brown ; 
legs dark plumbeous ; claws horn-colour. 
Length 8'2 inches_, tail 3*6^ wing 3*7, tarsus 1*15^ bill from gape 1. The 
female is considerably smaller. 
The Indian Magpie-Bobin is spread over the whole of British Burmah 
down to the southern extremity of Tenasserim^ where it meets the next 
species. Captain Wardlaw Ramsay also met with it in Karennee. 
Out of British Burmah it has a very wide range. It is spread through- 
out Southern China as far as Hainan. It occurs commonly in all the 
Tndo-Burmese countries and over the whole peninsula of India^ including 
Cevlon and the Andaman Islands. 
This bird is well known to all residents in Burmah on account of its 
familiar habits and pleasing song. It is usually found near villages and 
houses^ but there are few places even in the forests where a pair may not 
be met with. It is essentially, however, a bird which courts the presence 
of man. 
It begins to breed in Pegu in April, placing its nest, which is merely a 
mass of leaves lined with grass, in a hole of a tree or in a bamboo, or even 
on a beam of a verandah. It never builds in bushes in Burmah, as it is 
asserted it does elsewhere. The eggs are usually four in number and are 
pale green, streaked and blotched with reddish brown. 
20. COPSYCHUS MUSICUS. 
THE MALAYAN MAGPIE-ROBIN. 
Lanius musicus, Raffles, Trans. Lhm. Soc. xiii. p. 307. Copsychus musicus 
Wald. Ibis, 1872, p. 102 ; Ttveedd. Ibis, 1877, p. 309 ; Hmjie ^ Dav. S. F. 
vi. p. 333 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 99. Copsychus mindanensis, apnd Salvad, 
Ucc. Born. p. 254. Copsychus problematicus, Sharpe, Ibis, 1876, p. 36. 
Description. — Quite similar to C. saularis, but differing in the under 
wing-coverts and axillaries being white centred with black, whereas in 
C. saularis these parts are pure white. The females of C. musicus are also 
much darker in colour than the females of C. saularis. 
The dimensions and colours of the soft parts are the same as in 
C. saularis. 
Although the diff*erences pointed out between these two species are very 
slight, they hold good when a series of each species is examined. It is 
