"The Red-billed Blue Magpie is, as far as I know, an early breeder at
Naini Tal; common as the bird is I have only found one nest and that
on the 24th April; it was a shallow slenderly built structure of fine
roots, chiefly of maiden-hair fern, in a rough outer casing of twigs,
placed on a horizontal bough overhanging a nullah about fifteen feet
from the ground. The tree had moderately dense foliage, and was about
twenty-five feet high in a small clump on a hillside covered with low
scrub at 5000 feet elevation above the sea. Around the nest several
small boughs and twigs grew out, and being very slight in structure it
was not easy to see. The old bird sat very close. There were six eggs
in the nest about half-incubated: in two of them the markings were
densest at the small end. The egg-cavity was 6 inches in diameter by
about 1¼ deep. On the 5th June I saw old birds accompanied by young
ones able to fly, but without the long tails."
The eggs of this species much resemble those of the European Magpie,
but are considerably smaller. They are broad, rather perfect ovals,
somewhat elongated and pointed in many specimens. They exhibit but
little gloss. The ground-colour varies much, but in all the examples
that I possess, which I owe to Captain Hutton's kindness, it is either
of a yellowish-cream, pale _café au lait_ or buff colour, or pale dull
greenish. The ground is profusely blotched, spotted, and streaked (the
general character of the markings being striations parallel to the
major axis), with various shades of reddish and yellowish, brown and
pale inky purple. The markings vary much in intensity as well as in
frequency, some being so closely set as to hide the greater part of
the ground-colour; but in the majority of the eggs they are more or
less confluent at the large end, where they form a comparatively dark,
irregular blotchy zone.
The eggs vary from 1·25 to 1·4 in length, and from 0·89 to 0·96 in
breadth; but the average of 11 eggs is 1·33 by 0·93.
Major Bingham, referring to the Burmese Magpie, which has been
separated under by the name of _U. magnirostris_, says:--
"This species I have only found common in the Thoungyeen Valley.
Elsewhere it seemed to me scarce. Below I give a note about its
breeding.
"I have found three nests of this handsome Magpie--two on the bank
of the Meplay choung on the 14th April, 1879, and 5th March, 1880,
respectively, and one near Meeawuddy on the Thoungyeen river on the
19th March, 1880.
"The first contained three, the second four, and the third two eggs.
"These are all of the same type, dead white, with pale claret-coloured
clashes and spots rather washed-out looking, and lying chiefly at the
large end. One egg has the spots thicker at the small end. They are
moderately broad ovals, and vary from 1·19 to 1·35 in length, and from
0·93 to 1·08 in breadth.
"The nests were all alike, thick solid structures of twigs and
branches, lined with finer twigs about 8 or 9 inches in diameter,
and placed invariably at the top of tall straight saplings of teak,
pynkado (_Xylia dolabriformis_), and other trees at a height of about
15 feet from the ground."
All the eggs of the Burmese bird that I have seen, nine taken by Major
Bingham, were of one and the same type. The eggs broad ovals, in most
cases pointed towards the small end. The shell fine, but as a rule
with scarcely any perceptible gloss. The ground-colour a delicate
creamy white. The markings moderate-sized blotches, spots, streaks,
and specks, as a rule comparatively dense about one, generally the
large, end, where only as a rule any at all considerable sized
blotches occur, elsewhere more or less sparsely set, and generally of
a speckly character. The markings are of two colours: brown, varying
in shade in different eggs, olive-yellowish, chocolate, and a grey,
equally varying in different eggs from pale purple to pale sepia. None
of my eggs of the Himalayan bird (I have unfortunately but few of
these) correspond at all closely with these.