Later he writes:--"On the 8th April I found another nest containing
three half-fledged Magpies (_D. leucogastra_). The nest was entirely
composed of twigs, roughly but securely put together; interior
diameter 3 inches and depth 2 inches, though there was a good-sized
base or platform, say, 5 inches in diameter. The nest was situated on
the top fork of a sapling about 12 feet from the ground. I tried to
rear the young birds, but they all died within a week."

The egg is very like that of our other Indian Tree-pies. It is in
shape a broad and regular oval, only slightly compressed towards one
end. The shell is fine and compact and is moderately glossy. The
ground is a creamy stone-colour. It is profusely blotched and streaked
with a somewhat pale yellowish brown, these markings being most
numerous and darkest in a broad, irregular, imperfect zone round the
large end, and it exhibits further a number of pale inky-purple clouds
and blotches, which seem to underlie the brown markings, and which are
chiefly confined to the broader half of the egg. The latter measures
1·13 by 0·86.


18. Dendrocitta himalayensis, Bl. _The Himalayan Tree-pie_.

Dendrocitta sinensis (_Lath._) _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 316.
Dendrocitta himalayensis, _Bl., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 676.

Common as is the Himalayan Tree-pie throughout the lower ranges of
those mountains from which it derives its name, I personally have
never taken a nest.

It breeds, I know, at elevations of from 2000 to 6000 feet, during the