They build on the outskirts of forests, constructing their nests towards the ends of branches, at heights of from 10 to 50 feet from the ground.  The nest is a neat cup, some 4 or 5 inches in diameter and perhaps 3 inches in height, composed chiefly of moss and lined with black moss-roots and fibres.  In some of the nests that I have preserved a good deal of grass-leaves and scraps of lichen are incorporated in the moss.  The cavity is deep, from 21/2 to 3 inches in diameter and not much less than 2 inches in depth.

They lay two or three eggs; not more, so far as I yet know.

From Murree, Colonel C.H.T.  Marshall tells us that “the egg of this bird was, we believe, previously unknown, and it was a mere chance that we found the whereabouts of their nests, as they breed high up in the spruce firs at the outer end of a bough.  The nest is neatly made of moss, lined with stalks of the maiden-hair fern.  The eggs are pale blue, spotted and blotched with pale and reddish brown.  They are .95 in length and .7 in breadth.  This species breeds in June, about 7000 feet up.”

Nearly twenty years prior to this, however, Captain Hutton had remarked:—­“At Mussoorie this bird remains at an elevation of 7000 feet throughout the year, but I never saw it under 6500 feet.  Its loud ringing note of titteree-titteree tweeyo, quickly repeated, may constantly be heard on wooded banks during summer.  It breeds in May, making a neat nest of coarse dry grasses as a foundation, covered laterally with green moss and wool and lined with fine roots.  The number of eggs I did not ascertain, as the nest was destroyed when only one egg had been deposited, but the colour is pale bluish white, freckled with rufous.  The nest was placed on a branch of a plum-tree in the Botanical Garden, Mussoorie.”

Captain Cock says that he “found this species breeding at Murree, at 6000 feet elevation.

“I took my first nest on the 5th June.

“It builds near the tops of the highest pines, and unless seen building its nest with the glasses, it is impossible to find the nest with the unaided eye.

“The nest is placed on the outer extremity of an upper bough in a pine-tree; is constructed of moss lined with stalks of the maiden-hair fern.  Three eggs is the largest number I ever found.  The eggs are light greenish white, with rusty spots and blotches principally at the larger end.”

From Nynee Tal Colonel G.F.L.  Marshall writes:—­“This species builds in trees and bushes.  The only nest I examined personally was a very compact and thick cup-shaped structure of moss, grass, and roots, lined with grass, and placed amongst the outer twigs of a blackberry bush overhanging a cliff.  It was ready for the eggs on the 23rd May.  It was found at Nynee Tal on Agar Pata, about 7000 feet above the sea.”