UEOOISSA.	15
speckled with brown dashes confluent at the larger end; the ends
nearly equal in size. It is very terrene in its habits, feeding almost
entirely on the ground."
Colonel G. F. L. Marshall remarks :—
" The Bed-billed Blue Magpie is, as far as I know, an early
breeder at Nairn Tal; common as the bird is I have only found
one nest and that on the 24th April; it was a shallow slenderly
built structure of fine roots, chiefly of maiden-hair fern, in a rough
outer casing of twigs, placed on a horizontal bough overhanging a
nullah about fifteen feet from the ground. The tree had mode-
rately dense foliage, and was about twenty-five feet high in a small
clump on a hillside covered with low scrub at 5000 feet elevation
above the sea. Around the nest several small boughs and twigs
grew out, and being very slight in structure it was not easy to see.
The old bird sat very close. There were six eggs in the nest about
haliMncubated ; in two of them the markings were densest at the
small end. The egg-cavity \vas 6 inches in diameter by about 1|
deep. On the 5th June I saw old birds accompanied by young
ones able to fly, but without the long tails."
The eggs of this species much resemble those of the European
Magpie, but are considerably smaller. They are broad, rather
perfect ovals, some what'elongated and pointed in many specimens.
They exhibit but little gloss. The ground-colour varies much, but
in all the examples that I possess, which I owe to Captain Hut ton's
kindness, it is either of a yellowish-cream, pale cafe au lait or buff
colour, or pale dull greenish. The ground is profusely blotched,
spotted, and streaked (the general character of the markings being
striations parallel to the major axis), with various shades of reddish
and yellowish brown and pale inky purple. The markings vary
much in intensity as well as in frequency, some being so closely
set as to hide the greater part of the ground-colour; but in the
majority ,of the eggs they are more or less confluent at the large
end, where they form a comparatively dark, irregular blotchy
zone.
The eggs vary from 1-25 to 1-4 in. length, and from 0-89 to
0'96 in breadth'; but the average of 11 eggs is 1-33 by 0*93.
Major Bingham, referring to the Burmese Magpie, which has
been separated under by the name of U. magnirostris, says :—
" This species I have only found common in the Thoimgyeen
Valley. Elsewhere it seemed to me scarce. Below I give a note
about its breeding.
" I have found three nests of this handsome Magpie—two on
the bank of the Meplay choung on the 14th April, 1879, and 5th
March, 1880, respectively, and one near Meeawuddy on the
Thoimgyeen river on the 19th March, 1880.
" The first contained three, the second four, and the third two
48 These are all of the same type, dead white, with pale claret-
coloured dashes and spots rather washed-out looking, and lying
chiefly at the large end. One egg has the spots thicker at the