Major Bingham subsequently found another nest in Tenasserim, about which he says:—­

“Crossing the Wananatchoung, a little tributary of the Thoungyeen, by the highroad leading from Meeawuddy to the sources of the Thoungyeen, I found in a small thorny tree on the 8th April a nest of the above bird—­a great, firmly-built but shallow saucer of twigs, 6 feet or so above the ground, and lined with fine black roots.  It contained three fresh eggs of a dingy greyish white, thickly speckled chiefly at the large end, where it forms a cap, with light purplish brown.  The eggs measure 1.25 x 0.89, 1.18 x 0.92, and 1.20 x 0.90.”

Mr. James Inglis notes from Cachar:—­“This Jay is rather rare; it frequents low quiet jungle.  In April last a Kuki brought me three young ones he had taken from a nest in a clump of tree-jungle; he said the nest was some 20 feet from the ground and made of bamboo-leaves and grass.”

A nest of this species taken below Yendong in Native Sikhim, on the 28th April, contained four fresh eggs.  It was placed on the branches of a medium-sized tree at a height of about 12 feet from the ground; it was a large oval saucer, 8 inches by 6, and about 2.5 in depth, composed mainly of dry bamboo-leaves, bound firmly together with fine stems of creepers, and was lined with moderately fine roots; the cavity was 5 inches by 4, and about 1 in depth.

The eggs received from Major Bingham, as also others received from Sikhim, where they were procured by Mr. Mandelli on the 21st and 28th of April, are rather broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards the small end.  The shell is fine, but has only a little gloss.  The ground-colour is white or slightly greyish white, and they are uniformly freckled all over with very pale yellowish and greyish brown.  The frecklings are always somewhat densest at the large end, where in some eggs they form a dull brown cap or zone.  In some eggs the markings are everywhere denser, in some sparser, so that some eggs look yellower or browner, and others paler.

The eggs are altogether of the Garruline type, not of that of the Dendrocitta or Urocissa type.  I have eggs of G. lanceolatus, that but for being smaller precisely match some of the Cissa eggs.  Jerdon is, I think, certainly wrong in placing Cissa between Urocissa and Dendrocitta, the eggs of which two last are of the same and quite a distinct type[A].

[Footnote A:  I am responsible, and not Mr. Hume, for calling this bird a Magpie.  Jerdon calls it a Jay, but places it among the Magpies, which is, I consider, its proper position, notwithstanding the colour of its eggs.—­ED.]

The eggs vary from 1.15 to 1.26 in length, and from 0.9 to 0.95 in breadth, but the average of eight is 1.21 by 0.92.

15.  Cissa ornata (Wagler). The Ceylonese Magpie.

Cissa ornata (Wagl.), Hume, Cat. no. 673 bis.