the markings as a whole are less bold, and the general colour of a large body of them laid together is bluer and brighter than that of a similar drawer-full of Ravens’ eggs.  As a whole, too, they are more glossy.  I have one egg before me bright blue and almost as glossy as a Mynah’s, thickly blotched and speckled at the broad end, and thinly spotted elsewhere with olive-green, blackish-brown, and pale purple.  Another egg, a pale pure blue, is spotless, except at the large end, where there is a conspicuous cap of olive-brown and olive-green spots and speckles, and there are numerous other abnormal varieties which I have not observed amongst the Ravens.

On the whole the eggs do not vary much in size; out of one hundred and ninety-seven, one hundred and ninety-five varied between 1.28 and 1.65 in length, and 0.98 and 1.15 in breadth.  One egg measures only 1.2 in length, and one is only 0.96 in breadth; but the average of the whole is 1.44 by 1.06.

8.  Corvus insolens, Hume. The Burmese House-Crow.

Corvus insolens; Hume; Hume, Cat. no. 663 bis.

The Burmese House-Crow breeds pretty well over the whole of Burma.

Mr. Oates, writing from Pegu, says:—­“Nesting operations are commenced about the 20th March.  The nest and eggs require no separate description, for both appear to be similar to those of C. splendens.”

When large series of the eggs of both these species are compared, those of the Burmese Crow strike one as averaging somewhat brighter coloured, otherwise they are precisely alike and need no separate description.

9.  Corvus monedula, Linn. The Jackdaw.

Colaeus monedula (Linn.), Jerd.  B. Ind. ii, p. 302. 
Corvus monedula, Linn., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 665.

I only know positively of Jackdaws breeding in one district within our limits, viz.  Cashmere; but I have seen it in the hills in summer, as far east as the Valley of the Beas, and it must breed everywhere in suitable localities between the two.

In the cold season of course the Jackdaw descends into the plains of the North-west Punjaub, is very numerous near the foot of the hills, and has been found in cis-Indus as far east as Umballa, and south at Ferozpoor, Jhelum, and Kalabagh.  In Trans-Indus it extends unto the Dehra Ghazi Khan district.

I have never taken its eggs myself.

Mr. W. Theobald makes the following remarks on its nidification in the Valley of Cashmere:—­

“Lays in the first week of May; eggs four, five, and six in number, ovato-pyriform and long ovato-pyriform, measuring from 1.26, 1.45, to 1.60 in length, and from 0.9 to 1.00 in breadth; colour pale, clear bluish green, dotted and spotted with brownish black; valley generally; in holes of rocks, beneath roofs, and in tall trees.”

Dr. Jerdon says:—­“It builds in Cashmere in old ruined palaces, holes in rocks, beneath roofs of houses, and also in tall trees, laying four to six eggs, pale bluish green, clotted and spotted with brownish black.”