The eggs vary from 1·22 to 1·48 in length, and from 0·8 to 0·96 in
breadth; but the average of twenty-seven eggs is 1·3 by 0·92.


14. Cissa chinensis (Bodd.). _The Green Magpie_.

Cissa sinensis (_Briss._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 312.
Cissa speciosa (_Shaw_), _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 673.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes the Green Magpie breeds in Nepal in
the lower valleys and in the Terai from April to July. The nest is
built in clumps of bamboos and is large and cup-shaped, composed of
sticks and leaves, coated externally with bamboo-leaves and vegetable
fibres, and lined inside with fine roots. It lays four eggs, one of
which is figured as a broad oval, a good deal pointed towards one end,
with a pale stone-coloured ground freckled and mottled all over with
sepia-brown, and measuring 1·27 by 0·89.

Mr. Oates writes:--"In the Pegu Hills on the 19th April I found the
nest of the Green Magpie, and shot the female off it.

"The nest was placed in a small tree, about 20 feet from the ground,
in a nullah and well exposed to view. The nest was neatly built,
exteriorly of leaves and coarse roots, and finished off interiorly
with finer fibres and roots; depth about 2 inches; inside diameter 6
inches. Contained three eggs nearly hatched; all got broken; I have
the fragments of one. The ground-colour is greenish white, much
spotted and freckled with pale yellowish-brown spots and dashes, more
so at the larger end than elsewhere."