Dendrocitta rufa (_Scop._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 314; _Hume, Rough
Notes N. & E._ no. 674.
The Indian Tree-pie breeds throughout the continent of India, alike in
the plains and in the hills, up to an elevation of 6000 or 7000 feet.
I personally have found the nest with eggs in May, June, July,
and during the first week of August, in various districts in the
North-West Provinces, and have had them sent me from Saugor (taken
in July) and from Hansi (taken in April, May, and June); but perhaps
because the bird is so common scarcely any one has sent me notes about
its nidification, and I hardly know whether in other parts of India
and Burma its breeding-season is the same as with us.
The nest is always placed in trees, generally in a fork, near the top
of good large ones; babool and mango are very commonly chosen in the
North-West Provinces, though I have also found it on neem and sisso
trees. It is usually built with dry twigs as a foundation, very
commonly thorny and prickly twigs being used, on which the true nest,
composed of fine twigs and lined with grass-roots, is constructed. The
nests vary much: some are large and loosely put together, say, fully 9
inches in diameter and 6 inches in height externally; some are smaller
and more densely built, and perhaps not above 7 inches in diameter
and 4 inches in depth. The egg-cavity is usually about 5 inches in
diameter and 2 inches in depth, but they vary very much both in size
and materials; and I see that I note of one nest taken at Agra on the
3rd August--"A very shallow saucer some 6 inches in diameter, and
with a central depression not above 1½ inch in depth. It was composed
_exclusively_ of roots; externally somewhat coarse, internally of
somewhat finer ones. It was very loosely put together."
Five is the full complement of eggs, but it is very common to find
only four fully incubated ones.
Mr. W. Blewitt writes that he "found several nests in the latter half
of April, May, and the early part of June in the neighbourhood of
Hansie.
"Four was the greatest number of eggs I found in any nest.
"The nests were placed in neem, keekur, and shishum trees, at heights
of from 10 to 17 feet from the ground, and were densely built of twigs
mostly of the keekur and shishum, and more or less thickly lined with
fine straw and leaves. They varied from 6 to 8 inches in diameter and
from 2 to 3 inches in depth."
Mr. A. Anderson writes:--"The Indian Magpie lays from April to July,
and I have once actually seen a pair building in February. Their
eggs are of two very distinct types,--the one which, according to
my experience, is the ordinary one, is covered all over with
reddish-brown spots or rather blotches, chiefly towards the big end,
on a pale greenish-white ground, and is rather a handsome egg; the
other is a pale green egg with _faint brown_ markings, which are
confined almost entirely to the obtuse end. I have another clutch of
eggs taken at Budaon in 1865, which presents an intermediate variety
between the above two extremes; these are profusely blotched with
russet-brown on a dirty-white ground.
"The second and third nests above referred to contained five eggs; but
the usual complement is not more than four. On the 2nd August, 1872,
I made the following note relative to the breeding of this bird:--The
bird flew off immediately we approached the tree, and never appeared
again. The nest viewed from below looked larger; this is owing to dry
_babool_ twigs or rather small branches (some of them having thorns
from an inch to 2 inches long!) having been used as a foundation, and
actually encircling the nest, no doubt by way of protection against
vermin; some of these thorny twigs were a foot long, and they had
to be removed piecemeal before the nest proper could be got at. The
egg-cavity is deep, measuring 5 inches in depth by 4 in breadth inside
measurement; it is well lined with khus grass."