THE HIMALAYAN TREE-MAGPIE. 
403 
Palaui hills. In the Himalayas it is found up to an elevation of about 
7000 feet. 
This common Magpie is found alike in forests and in open country where 
there are a tolerable number of trees. It is quite a tree-Pie_, never appa- 
rently descending to the ground. It goes about in small flocks, sometimes 
alone, and has a variety of notes. 
I have not found the nest in Burmah. In India it appears to breed 
according to locality from April to J uly, constructing a nest, near, the top 
of a large tree, of thorny twigs lined with grass. The eggs, usually five in 
number, vary much in colour, the markings being brown, reddish or 
purplish. 
375. DENDROCITTA HIMALAYENSIS. 
THE HIMALAYAN TREE-MAGPIE. 
Dendrocitta himalayensis, Bl. Ibis, 1865, p. 45 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 423 ; 
Bl. B. Burin, p. 88 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. iii. p. 79 ; Wardlaw Ramsay, 
Ibis, 1877, p. 459 ; Hume Sf Dav. S. F. vi. p. 386 ; Hmne, S. F. viii. p. 106 ; 
Scully, S. F. viii. p. 329, Dendrocitta sinensis {Lath.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii. 
p. 316. Dendrocitta assimilis, Hume, S. F. v. p. 117 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. 
vi. p. 386 ; Hume, S. F. vii. p. 519, viii. p. 106. 
Description. — Male and female. Forehead, lores and feathers above the eye 
black ; sides of the head, chin and throat dark sooty brown, fading and over- 
spreading the sides of the neck and the breast ; crown of the head, nape 
and upper back ashy ; back and scapulars clear brownish buff ; rump and 
upper tail-coverts ashy; wings and their coverts black, all the primaries 
but the first two with a patch of white at their base, forming a conspicuous 
spot ; central pair of tail-feathers ashy for two thirds of their length, then 
black ; the others all black, except the extreme bases, which are ashy ; 
abdomen and flanks cinereous ; thighs brown ; vent and under tail-coverts 
chestnut. 
The young do not differ much from the adult ; the colours are paler, 
the feathers of the upper plumage are tipped with buff^ and the under tail- 
coverts and vent are reddish brown. 
Bill black; irides reddish brown; feet brownish black, in young birds 
leaden black ; claAvs dusky. {Scully.) 
Length 16 inches, tail 9^ wing 5-5, tarsus l"!, bill from gape 1-3. The 
female is rather smaller. 
Mr. Hume has separated under the name of D. assimilis a form of this 
species which occurs in Norlhern Tenasserim. It is described as being 
very like D. himalayensis, but with a larger and more massive bill, much 
less compressed towards the tip ; with cheeks, ear-coverts and throat brown 
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