16 COBVIBJ5.

small end. They are moderately broad ovals, and vary from 1/19
to 1*35 in length, and.from 0*93 to TOS in breadth.

" The nests were all alike, thick solid structures of twigs and
branches, lined with finer twigs about 8 or 9 inches in diameter,
and placed invariably at the top of tall straight saplings of teak,
pynkado (Xylia, dolabriformis), and other trees at a height of about
15 feet from the ground."

All the eggs of the Burmese bird that I have seen, nine taken by
Major Bingham, were or one and the same type. The eggs broad
ovals, in most cases pointed towards the small end. The shell
fine, but as a rule with scarcely any perceptible gloss. The ground-
colour a delicate creamy white. The markings moderate-sized
blotches, spots, streaks, and specks, as a rule comparatively dense
about one, generally the large, end, where only as a rule any at all
considerable sized blotches occur, elsewhere more or less sparsely
set, and generally of a speckly character. The markings are of
two colours: brown, varying in shade in different eggs, olive-yel-
lowish, chocolate, and a grey, equally varying in different eggs from
pale purple to pale sepia. None of my eggs of the Himalayan bird
(I have unfortunately but few of these) correspond at all closely
with these.

13. Urocissa flavirostris (Bl.). The Yelloiu-billed Blue Magpie.

Urocissa flavirostris (SI-}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 310; Hume. Rough
Draft N. $ K no. 672.

The Yellow-billed Blue Magpie breeds throughout the lower
ranges of the Himalayas in well-wooded localities from Hazara to
Bhootan, and very likely further east still, from April to* August,
mostly however, I think, laying in May. The nest, which is
rather coarse and large, made of sticks and lined with fine grass or
grass-roots, is, so far as my experience goes, commonly placed in a
fork near the top of some moderate-sized but densely foliaged
tree.

I have never found a nest at a lower elevation than about 5000
feet; as a rule they are a good deal higher up.

They lay from four to six eggs, but the usual number is five.

Colonel 0. H. T. Marshall writes :—" The Yellow-billed Blue
Magpie breeds commonly about Murree. I have never seen the
bird below 6000 feet in the breeding-season. They do not com-
mence laying till May, and I have taken eggs nearly fresh as late
as the 15th August. I do not think the bird breeds twice, as the
earliest eggs taken were found on the 10th May.

"They build in hill oaks as a rule, the height of the nest from
the ground varying much, some being as low as 10 feet, others
nearer 30 feet. The hen bird sits close, and sometimes (when the
nest is high up) does not even leave the nest when the tree is
struck below. The nest is a rough structure built close to the
trunk, externally consisting of twigs and roots and lined with
fibres. The egg-cavity is circular and shallow, not at all neatly