Colonel C.H.T.  Marshall writes:—­“This is one of the commonest birds about Murree; we always found it well to the front during our rambles, chattering about in the trees.  They breed from the middle of April till the end of June.  We have taken their eggs between the 20th April and the 16th June.  They keep above 5000 feet.  I never observed any in the lower ranges.  The nest is not a difficult one to find, being large and of loose construction; 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.”

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 41/2 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.”