Mr. G.W. Vidal, writing of the South Konkan, says:--"Common about all
well-wooded villages from coast to Ghâts. Breeds in April."

With regard to Cachar Mr. Inglis writes:--"This Magpie is very common
in all the neighbouring villages, but I have not often seen it in the
jungles. It remains all the year and breeds during April and May."

The eggs are typically somewhat elongated ovals, a good deal pointed
towards the small end. They vary extraordinarily in colour and
character, as well as extent of markings, but, as remarked when
speaking of the Raven, all the eggs out of the same nest closely
resemble each other, while the eggs of different nests are almost
invariably markedly distinct. There are, however, two leading
types--the one in which the markings are bright red, brownish red, or
pale pinkish purple; and the other in which they are olive-brown and
pale purplish brown. In the first type the ground-colour is either
pale salmon, or else very pale greenish white, and the markings are
either bold blotches, more or less confluent at the large end, where
they are far most numerous, and only a few specks and spots towards
the smaller end, or they are spots and small blotches thickly
distributed over the whole surface, or they are streaky smudges
forming a mottled ill-defined cap at the large end, and running down
thence in streaks and spots longitudinally; in the other type the
ground-colour is greenish white or pale yellowish stone-colour, and
the character of the markings varies as in the preceding type. Besides
these there are a few eggs with a dingy greyish-white ground, with
very faint, cloudy, ill-defined spots of pale yellowish brown pretty
uniformly distributed over the whole surface. In nine eggs out of
ten, the markings are most dense at the large end, where they form