From 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 Garrulus bispecularis and Urocissa flavirostris. 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."
From 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 4½ 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."
From 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 containing three hard-set eggs was placed conspicuously on the top of a young oak sapling about 7 feet high, standing alone in an open glade, in the forest on Aya Pata, which is about 7000 feet above the sea. Another nest, found at an elevation of about 4500 feet on the 9th June, contained two eggs; it was placed about 10 feet from the ground in a small tree in a hedgerow amongst cultivated fields."
Mr. Hodgson notes from Jaha Powah:—"Found five nests of this species between 18th and 30th May. Builds near the tops of moderate-sized trees in open districts, making a very shallow nest of thin elastic grasses sparingly used and without lining. The nest is placed on some horizontal branch against some upright twig, or at some horizontal fork. It is nearly round and has a diameter of about 6 inches. They lay three or four eggs of a sordid vernal green clouded with obscure brown."
The eggs are somewhat lengthened ovals, very much smaller than, though so far as coloration goes very similar to, those of G. glandarius. The ground-colour in some is a brown stone colour, in others pale greenish white, and intermediate shades occur, and they are very minutely and feebly freckled and mottled over the whole surface with a somewhat pale sepia-brown. This mottling differs much in intensity; in some few eggs indeed it is absolutely wanting, while in others, though feeble elsewhere, it forms a distinct, though undefined, brownish cap or zone at the large end. The eggs generally have little or no gloss. It is not uncommon to find a few hair-like dark brown lines, more or less zigzag, about the larger end.
In length they vary from 1·03 to 1·23, and in breadth from 0·78 to 0·88; but the average of twenty-four eggs is 1·12 by 0·85.
25. Garrulus leucotis, Hume. The Burmese Jay.
Garrulus leucotis, Hume, Hume, Cat. no. 669 bis.
The nest of this Jay has not yet been found, but Capt. Bingham writes:—
"Like Mr. Davison I have found this very handsome Jay affecting only the dry Dillenia and pine-forests so common in the Thoungyeen valley. I have seen it feeding on the ground in such places with Gecinus nigrigenys, Upupa longirostris, and other birds. I shot one specimen, a female, in April, near the Meplay river, that must have had a nest somewhere, which, however, I failed to find, for she had a full-formed but shell-less egg inside her."