brownish white. In some eggs it has none, in others a slight gloss.
Everywhere the eggs are finely and streakly freckled with a brown that
varies from olive almost to sepia; about the large end the markings
are almost always most dense, forming there a more or less noticeable,
but quite irregular and undefined cap or zone. In one or two eggs dull
purplish-brown clouds or blotches underlie and intermingle with this
cap, and occasionally a small spot of this same tint may be noticed
elsewhere when the egg is closely examined.


12. Urocissa occipitalis (Bl.). _The Red-billed Blue Magpie_.

Urocissa sinensis (_Linn._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 309.
Urocissa occipitalis (_Bl_.), _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E_. no. 671.

I have never myself found the nest of the Red-billed Blue Magpie;
although it does breed sparingly as far east as Simla and Kotegurh,
it is not till you 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."