GAEKtTLUS. 27 



struction ; from 15 to 30 feet up a medium-sized tree close to the 

 trunk or sometimes in a large fork. They never seem to build in 

 the spruce firs which abound about Murree. They are by no 

 means shy birds, and hop about the trees close by while their nest 

 is being examined. Five is the ordinary number of eggs, which 

 differ very much in appearance and size: the longest I have 

 measures 1-25 and the shortest 1-1. Some are paler, some darker ; 

 some are of a uniform pale greenish-ash colour with a darker ring, 

 while others are thickly speckled and freckled with a darker shade 

 of the same colour. Some lack the odd ink- scratch which is so 

 often to be seen on the larger end, and is the most peculiar feature 

 of the egg, while a few have it at the thinner end. 



" I should describe the average type as a long egg for its breadth ; 

 ground-colour greenish ashy with very thick sprinklings of spots 

 of a darker and more greenish shade of the same colour, a ring of 

 a darker dull olive round the large end, on which are one or two 

 lines that look like a haphazard scratch from a fine steel pen." 



Prom Dhurmsala Captain Cock wrote to me that this was " a 

 most common bird at Dhurmsala ; appears in large flocks during 

 the winter, and often mixes with Oarrulus bispecularis and Uroeissa 

 Jlavirostris. Pairs off about the end of April, when nidification 

 begins. Builds a rather rough nest of sticks, generally placed on 

 a tall sapling oak near the top ; sometimes among the thicker 

 branches of a pollard oak : outer nest small twigs roughly put 

 together; inner nest dry roots and fibres, rather deep cup-shaped. 

 Eggs number from four to five and vary in shape. I have found 

 them sometimes nearly round, but more generally the usual shape. 

 They vary in their colour, too, some being much lighter than 

 others, but most of them have a few hair-like streaks on the 

 larger end." 



Prom Mussoorie Captain Hutton tells us that " the Black- 

 throated Jay breeds in May and June, placing the nest sometimes 

 on the branch of a tall oak tree (Quercus incana), at other times 

 in a thick bush. It is composed of a foundation of twigs, and 

 lined with fine roots of grass &c. mixed with the long black fibres 

 of ferns and mosses, which hang upon the forest trees, and have 

 much the appearance of black horse-hair. The nest is cup-shaped, 

 rather shallow, loosely put together, circular, and about 4| inches 

 in diameter. The eggs are sometimes three, sometimes four in 

 number, of a greenish stone-grey, freckled, chiefly at the larger 

 end, with dusky and a few black hair-like streaks, which are not 

 always present ; they vary also in the amount of dusky freckling 

 at the larger end. The nestling bird is devoid of the lanceolate 

 markings on the throat." 



Prom Nynee Tal Colonel G. F. L. Marshall writes:— "The 

 Black-throated Jay builds a very small cup-shaped nest of black 

 hair-like creepers and roots, intertwined and placed in a rough 

 irregular casing of twigs. A nest found on the 2nd June con- 

 taining three hard-set eggs was placed conspicuously on the top of 

 a young oak sapling about 7 feet high, standing alone in an open 



