u cross the Jumna that it is abundant. East of the
Jumna, about Mussoorie, Teeree, Grurhwal, Kumaon, and in Nepal, it is
common.

From Mussoorie Captain Hutton tells us that "this species occurs at
Mussoorie throughout the year. It breeds at an elevation of 5000 feet
in May and June, making a loose nest of twigs externally and lined
with roots. The nest is built on trees, sometimes high up, at others
about 8 or 10 feet from the ground. The eggs are from three to five,
of a dull greenish ash-grey, blotched and 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 Red-billed Blue Magpie is, as far as I know, an early breeder at
Naini 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 moderately 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 half-incubated: in two of them the markings were
densest at the small end. The egg-cavity was 6 inches in diameter by
about 11/4 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,
somewhat 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 Hutton'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 majorit