he
cavity was 5 inches by 4, and about 1 in depth.

The eggs received from Major Bingham, as also others received from
Sikhim, where they were procured by Mr. Mandelli on the 21st and 28th
of April, are rather broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards the small
end. The shell is fine, but has only a little gloss. The ground-colour
is white or slightly greyish white, and they are uniformly freckled
all over with very pale yellowish and greyish brown. The frecklings
are always somewhat densest at the large end, where in some eggs
they form a dull brown cap or zone. In some eggs the markings are
everywhere denser, in some sparser, so that some eggs look yellower or
browner, and others paler.

The eggs are altogether of the _Garruline_ type, not of that of the
_Dendrocitta_ or _Urocissa_ type. I have eggs of _G. lanceolatus_,
that but for being smaller precisely match some of the _Cissa_ eggs.
Jerdon is, I think, certainly wrong in placing _Cissa_ between
_Urocissa_ and _Dendrocitta_, the eggs of which two last are of the
same and quite a distinct type[A].

[Footnote A: I am responsible, and not Mr. Hume, for calling this bird
a Magpie. Jerdon calls it a Jay, but places it among the Magpies,
which is, I consider, its proper position, notwithstanding the colour
of its eggs.--ED.]

The eggs vary from 1.15 to 1.26 in length, and from 0.9 to 0.95 in
breadth, but the average of eight is 1.21 by 0.92.

15. Cissa ornata (Wagler). _The Ceylonese Magpie_.

Cissa ornata (_Wagl._), _Hume, Cat._ no. 673 bis.

Colonel Legge writes in his 'Birds of Ceylon':--"This bird breeds
during the cool season. I found its nest in the Kandapolla jungles
in January; it was situated in a fork of the top branch of a tall
sapling, about 45 feet in height, and was a tolerably bulky structure,
externally made of small sticks, in the centre of which was a deep
cup 5 inches in diameter by 21/2 in depth, made entirely of fine roots;
there was but one egg in the nest, which unfortunately got broken in
being lowered to the ground. It was ovate and slightly pyriform, of
a faded bluish-green ground thickly spotted all over with very light
umber-brown, over larger spots of bluish-grey. It measured 0.98 inch
in diameter by _about_ 1.3 in length."

16. Dendrocitta rufa (Scop.). _The Indian Tree-pie_.

Dendrocitta rufa (_Scop._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 314; _Hume, Rough
Notes N. & E._ no. 674.

The Indian Tree-pie breeds throughout the continent of Indi