“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.”

Major Bingham says:—­

“Common as is this bird I have only found one nest, and that was at Allahabad on the 9th July, and contained one half-fledged young one and an addled egg.  The nest, which was placed at the very top of a large mango-tree, was constructed of branches and twigs of the same lined with fine grass-roots.  The egg is a yellowish white, thickly speckled, chiefly at the large end, with rusty.  Length 1.10 by 0.82 in breadth.”

Colonel Butler tells us that it “breeds in Sind, in the hot weather.  Mr. Doig took a nest containing three fresh eggs on the 1st May, 1878.  The eggs, which seem to me to be remarkably small for the size of the bird, are of the first type mentioned in Rough Draft of ’Nests and Eggs,’ p. 422.”

Lieut.  H.E.  Barnes says in his ’Birds of Bombay:’—­“In Sind they breed during May and June, always choosing babool trees, placing the nest in a stoutish fork near the top; they are composed at the bottom of thorny twigs, which form a sort of foundation upon which the true nest is built; the latter consists of fine twigs lined with grass-roots; the nest is frequently of large size.”