Urocissa flavirostris (_Bl.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 310; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 672.
The Yellow-billed Blue Magpie breeds throughout the lower ranges of
the Himalayas in well-wooded localities from Hazara to Bhootan, and
very likely further east still, from April to August, mostly however,
I think, laying in May. The nest, which is rather coarse and large,
made of sticks and lined with fine grass or grass-roots, is, so far
as my experience goes, commonly placed in a fork near the top of some
moderate-sized but densely foliaged tree.
I have never found a nest at a lower elevation than about 5000 feet;
as a rule they are a good deal higher up.
They lay from four to six eggs, but the usual number is five.
Colonel C.H.T. Marshall writes:--"The Yellow-billed Blue Magpie breeds
commonly about Murree. I have never seen the bird below 6000 feet in
the breeding-season. They do not commence laying till May, and I have
taken eggs nearly fresh as late as the 15th August. I do not think the
bird breeds twice, as the earliest eggs taken were found on the 10th
May.
"They build in hill oaks as a rule, the height of the nest from the
ground varying much, some being as low as 10 feet, others nearer 30
feet. The hen bird sits close, and sometimes (when the nest is high
up) does not even leave the nest when the tree is struck below.
The nest is a rough structure built close to the trunk, externally
consisting of twigs and roots and lined with fibres. The egg-cavity is
circular and shallow, not at all neatly lined. The outer part of
the nest is large compared to what I should call the true nest, and
consists of a heap of twigs, &c. like what is gathered together for
the platform of a Crow's nest.
"The eggs, which are four in number, vary in length from 1·45 to 1·25,
and in breadth from 0·9 to 0·75. The ordinary type is an egg a good
deal pointed at the thinner end. The ground-colour is greenish white,
blotched and freckled with ruddy brown, with a ring at the larger end
of confluent spots. The young birds are of a very dull colour until
after the first month. The normal number of eggs laid appears to be
four."
Captain Cock wrote to me:--"_U. flavirostris_ is common at Dhurmsala,
but the nest is rather difficult to find. I have only taken six in
three years. It is usually placed amongst the branches of the hill
oak, where it has been polled, and the thickly growing shoots afford a
good cover; but sometimes it is on the top of a small slender sapling.
The nest is a good-sized structure of sticks with a rather deep cup
lined with dried roots; in fact, it is very much like the nest of
_Garrulus lanceolatus_, only larger and much deeper. They generally
lay four eggs, which differ much in colour and markings."
Dr. Jerdon says:--"I had the nest and eggs brought me once. The nest
was made of sticks and roots. The eggs, three in number, were of a
greenish-fawn colour very faintly blotched with brown."
The eggs are of the ordinary Indian Magpie type, scarcely, if at all,
smaller than those of _U. occipitalis_, and larger than the average of
eggs of either _Dendrocitta rufa_ or _D. himalayensis_. Doubtless
all kinds of varieties occur, as the eggs of this family are very
variable; but I have only seen two types--in the one the ground is a
pale dingy yellowish stone-colour, profusely streaked, blotched, and
mottled with a somewhat pale brown, more or less olivaceous in some
eggs, the markings even in this type being generally densest towards
the large end, where they form an irregular mottled cap: in the other
type the ground is a very pale greenish-drab colour; there is a dense
confluent raw-sienna-coloured zone round the large end, and only a few
spots and specks of the same colour scattered about the rest of the
egg. All kinds of intermediate varieties occur. The texture of the
shell is fine and compact, and the eggs are mostly more or less
glossy.
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.