40i BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
instead of blackish dusky ; sides of neck and upper back tinged with the 
brown of the back (which is paler than in D. himalayensis) instead of being 
grey; black frontal band narrower, in many specimens conspicuously so/'' 
It is at best but a local race^ and Mr. Hume himself remarks of it subse- 
quently that it scarcely perhaps deserves specific separation/^ 
D. sinensis occurs throughout China, and may be recognized by its very 
much smaller size, by the tail-coverts being whiter and the central tail- 
feathers entirely black. 
The Himalayan Tree -Magpie is stated by Mr. Blyth to occur in the 
mountains of Arrakan. Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay procured it on the 
Tonghoo hills and in Karennee, and Mr. Davison found it at Kollidoo and 
on Mooleyit mountain in Tenasserim. It has not yet been met with in 
any part of Pegu west of the Sittang river. 
Out of Burmah it has been observed in Cachar and in the hills of Eastern 
Bengal. It occurs in Assam and along the whole Himalayan range as far 
at least as the Sutlej valley. In Sikhim Capt. Bulger remarks that they 
did not seem to range very high, and in Nipal Dr. Scully states that they 
do not ascend much higher than 6000 feet. 
The habits of this species do not appear to differ from those of the pre- 
ceding. Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay found the nest on the Karin hills at an 
elevation of 4200 feet on the I6th of April ; it contained two eggs. 
Genus CRYPSIKHINA, VieilL 
376. CEYPSIRHINA VARIANS. 
THE BLACK RACKET-TAILED MAGPIE. ^ 
Corvus varians, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supjd. p. xxvi. Phrenotrix temia, Hors . 
Trans. lAnn. Soc. xiii. p. 163 ; id. Zool. Res. in Jam, pi. Crypsirhina 
varians, Wald. P. Z. S. 1866, p. 552 ; Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 279 ; Bl. B. Burm. 
p. 88 ; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 146 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. iii. p. 83 ; Wardlaw 
■ Ramsaij, Ibis, 1877, p. 459 ; Oates, S. F. v. p. 159 ; Hume Sf Dav. S. F. vi, p. 386 ; 
Hume, S. F. viii. p. 106. 
Description. — Male and female. The whole plumage metallic bronze 
green, tinged with bluish on the head ; wings brown_, the outer webs of the 
primaries greenish the other quills more or less entirely suffused with 
green ; tail black, more or less overspread with a metallic green lustre ; 
forehead, round the eye and about the gape dull black, the feathers of a 
velvety texture. 
Iris blue ; mouth flesh-colour ; bill, legs and claws black. 
♦ 
