for
three-fourths. The head, neck, and breast are black, and the remainder
of the plumage is a beautiful blue with handsome white markings. It
is quite unnecessary to describe the blue-magpie in detail. It is
impossible to mistake it. Even a blind man cannot fail to notice it
because of its loud ringing call. East of Simla the red-billed species
is by far the commoner, while to the west the yellow-billed form rules
the roost. The vernacular names for the blue-magpie are _Nilkhant_
at Mussoorie and _Dig-dall_ at Simla.

The Himalayan tree-pie (_Dendrocitta himalayensis_), although a fine
bird, looks mean in comparison with his blue cousins. This species
is like a dull edition of the tree-pie of the plains. It is dressed
like a quaker. It is easily recognised when on the wing. Its flight
is very characteristic, consisting of a few rapid flaps of the pinions
followed by a sail on outstretched wings. The median pair of tail
feathers is much longer than the others, the pair next to the middle
one is the second longest, and the outer one shortest of all. Thus
the tail, when expanded during flight, has a curious appearance.

We now come to the jays. That brilliant study in light and dark blue,
so common in the plains, which we call the blue-jay, does not occur
in the Himalayas; nor is it a jay at all: its proper name is the Indian
roller (_Coracias indica_). It is in no way connected with the jay
tribe, being not even a passerine bird. We know this because of the
arrangement of its deep plantar tendons, because its palate is
desmognathous instead of aegithognathous, because--but I think I
will not proceed further with these reasons; if I do, this article
will resemble a letter written by the conscientious undergraduate
who used to copy into each of his epistles to his mother, a page of
_A Complete Guide to the Town of Cambridge_. The fond mother doubtless
found her son's letters very instructive, but they were not exactly
what she wanted. Let it suffice that the familiar bird with wings
of two shades of blue is not a jay, nor even one of the Corviniae,
but a blood relation of the kingfishers and bee-eaters.

Two true jays, however, are common in the Western Himalayas. These
are known to science as the Himalayan jay (_Garrulus bispecularis_)
and the black-throated jay (_G. lanceolatus_). The former is a
fawn-coloured bird, with a black moustachial streak. As birds do not
usually indulge in moustaches, this streak renders th