THE



Avicultural Magazine


THE JOURNAL OF THE

AVICULTURAL SOCIETY



Fifth Series .—VoL IL—No. 3 .-—All rights reserved. MARCH, 1937.



THE FORMOSAN BLUE MAGPIE


Urocissa casrulea


These beautiful Magpies, with the rest of the genus Urocissa , are

found in the mountains of Northern India, Burma, China, and Indo-

China, but the largest and finest species comes from Formosa. All the

continental forms have brown eyes and white under parts, whereas

the Formosan Blue Magpie has pale yellow irides and a blue belly,

which add greatly to its beauty. Perhaps, however, its tail is not

quite as long nor as gracefully curved and waving as that of its smaller

relations.


Like all the Urocissa , the Formosan Blue Magpies live in woods and

in open country, well provided with trees and bushes. They go in small

parties, hunting for large insects, small vertebrates, and fruit, and

are numerous in the camphor forests on the mountains. They are

shy and difficult to approach. Only a few specimens have from time

to time been imported alive into Japan, but none had reached England

until Mr. Ezra received a pair as a gift from Prince Taka-Tsukasa, and

it is from one of them that this illustration was made. Readers of the

Avicultural Magazine will remember that Mr. Ezra wrote a descrip¬

tion of his birds in the October number of 1935, from which this note

has been taken.



E. F. C.

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