Their flight is dipping and consists of alternative flappings of the wings with short spells of sailings with the wings stiffly outspread.
This Magpie is everywhere one of the most familiar of birds, frequenting gardens and the outskirts of towns and villages and not penetrating into the wilder parts.
The type locality of rufa was certainly somewhere in South India, probably Malabar and therefore that place may be now designated.
(27) Dendrocitta rufa vagabunda.
The Bengal Tree-pie.
- Coracias vagabunda Lath., Ind. Orn., p. 171 (1790) (India).
Vernacular names. Bobalink (Europeans Bengal); Kotri (Hindi in Beng.); Takka-chor, Handi-chacha (Bengali); Kash-kurshi (N. Cachar); Khola-Khoa (Assam.); Dao-ka-link (Cachari).
Description. Differs from the last in being more richly coloured; the head is blackish and the red of the back is almost chestnut and the fulvous red below also much richer.
Colours of soft parts as in rufa.
Measurements. Wing 145 to 172 mm.; tail 209 to 253 mm.
Distribution. Northern India from Garhwal to Eastern Assam, Behar, U. Provinces, Bengal and Manipur.
The type locality may be restricted to Calcutta.
Nidification. Similar to that of the last bird and neither nest nor egg can be distinguished.
Habits. An equally confiding, common bird, being found in flocks in gardens and parks in the centre of Calcutta and haunting the immediate vicinity of every town and village.
(28) Dendrocitta rufa sclateri, subsp. nov.
The Chin Hills Tree-pie.
Description. Similar to D. rufa rufa but with the whole plumage very pale and washed out and the dark grey of the head gradually merging with the pale dull rufous-brown or rufous-grey of the back.
Colours of soft parts as in the rest of the subspecies.
Measurements. Wing 142 to 161 mm.; tail 242 to 287 mm., generally well over 260 mm.
Distribution. Chin and Kachin Hills.
Nidification and Habits. Nothing recorded.
Type. No. 1905—9. 10. 6. Brit. Mus. Coll., Mt. Victoria, 1,600 feet.
