400 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
jungle will usually be found to attract some few of these birds. It is seldom 
seen at a distance from houses, its usual food consisting principally of the 
scraps left by man. Failing these it eats almost any thing — garbage, 
small mammals, frogs, and even insects ; and when fruit is ripe it takes its 
share of it. 
The breeding-season commences about the middle of March and lasts 
till the beginning of the rains. These birds almost always breed in 
societies, selecting a group of trees in a compound or near a monastery. 
The nest, made of twigs and lined with hair, grass or other soft substances, 
is placed high up in rather tall trees. The eggs, usually four in number, 
are greenish, marked with various shades of brown. 
Genus UROCISSA, Cabanis. 
373. UROCISSA OCCIPITALIS. 
THE BLUE MAGPIE. 
Psilorhinus occipitalis, Bl. J. A. S. B. xv. p. 26. Psilorhinus magnirostris, Bl. 
J. A. S. B. XV. p. 27. Urocissa occipitalis, Jerd. B Ind. ill. p. 873 ; Hume, 
Nests and Eggs, p. 419; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. iii. p. 70; Hume, 8. F. 
viii. p. 105 ; Scidly, S. F. viii. p. 327 ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 191. Urocissa 
magnirostris, Bl. B. Btirm. p. 88 ; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 144 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds 
B. Mus. iii. p. 71 ; Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 460 ; Hume 8j- Dav. S. F. vi. 
p. 385; Ande7's. Yunnan Exped. p. 592; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 105. Urocissa 
sinensis {Lin.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 309. 
Description. — Male and female. Head, neck and breast black ; a large 
patch on the nape, continued down the back of the neck, white ; some 
of the feathers of the crown also tipped with white ; lower plumage white 
tinged with purple ; tail blue, broadly tipped with white, and all but the 
central pair of feathers with a band of black next the white tips ; wings 
brown ; the first two primaries edged with blue, the next five edged with 
blue above the margination and with bluish white below; the other 
primaries and secondaries almost entirely blue on the outer web; the 
tertiaries blue on both webs ; the whole of the quills tipped with white, at 
first on the outer web only and gradually extending to both ; back, scapu- 
lars and rump purplish blue ; the wing-coverts brighter ; upper tail- 
coverts blue tipped with black, and with a band of bluish white next the 
black tips. 
Iris brown, probably turning to red in very old birds ; bill and legs 
varying from red to crimson ; eyelids greyish white ; claws horn-colour ; 
mouth flesh-colour. 
