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."
Mr. G.W. Vidal, writing of the South Konkan, says:—"Common about all well-wooded villages from coast to Ghâts. Breeds in April."
With regard to Cachar Mr. Inglis writes:—"This Magpie is very common in all the neighbouring villages, but I have not often seen it in the jungles. It remains all the year and breeds during April and May."
The eggs are typically somewhat elongated ovals, a good deal pointed towards the small end. They vary extraordinarily in colour and character, as well as extent of markings, but, as remarked when speaking of the Raven, all the eggs out of the same nest closely resemble each other, while the eggs of different nests are almost invariably markedly distinct. There are, however, two leading types—the one in which the markings are bright red, brownish red, or pale pinkish purple; and the other in which they are olive-brown and pale purplish brown. In the first type the ground-colour is either pale salmon, or else very pale greenish white, and the markings are either bold blotches, more or less confluent at the large end, where they are far most numerous, and only a few specks and spots towards the smaller end, or they are spots and small blotches thickly distributed over the whole surface, or they are streaky smudges forming a mottled ill-defined cap at the large end, and running down thence in streaks and spots longitudinally; in the other type the ground-colour is greenish white or pale yellowish stone-colour, and the character of the markings varies as in the preceding type. Besides these there are a few eggs with a dingy greyish-white ground, with very faint, cloudy, ill-defined spots of pale yellowish brown pretty uniformly distributed over the whole surface. In nine eggs out of ten, the markings are most dense at the large end, where they form irregular, more or less imperfect caps or zones. A few of the eggs are slightly glossy.
Of the salmon-pink type some specimens in their coloration resemble eggs of Dicrurus longicaudatus and some of our Goatsuckers, while of those with the greenish-white ground-colour some strongly recall the eggs of Lanius lahtora.
In length the eggs vary from 1·0 to 1·3, and in breadth from 0·78 to 0·95; but the average of forty-four eggs is 1·17 by 0·87.
17. Dendrocitta leucogastra, Gould. The Southern Tree-pie.
Dendrocitta leucogastra, Gould, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 317; Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E. no. 678.
From Travancore Mr. Bourdillon has kindly sent me an egg and the following note on the nidification of the Southern Tree-pie:—