Colonel G.F.L.  Marshall writes:—­“I have found nests of this species for the first time this year; the first on the 22nd of May, by which time, as all recorded evidence shows it to be an early breeder, I had given up all hopes of getting eggs.  The first nest contained two fresh eggs; it was on a horizontal limb of a large oak, at a bifurcation about eight feet from the trunk and about the same from the ground.  The nest was more substantial than that of G. lanceolatus, much more moss having been used in the outer casing, but the lining was similar; it was a misshapen nest, and appeared, in the distance, like an old deserted one; the bird was sitting at the time; I took one egg, hoping more would be laid, but the other was deserted and destroyed by vermin.  Another nest I found on the 2nd June; it contained three eggs just so much incubated that it is probable no more would be laid; this nest was much neater in construction and better concealed than the former one; it was in a rhododendron tree, in a bend about ten feet from the ground, between two branches upwards of a foot each in diameter, and covered with moss and dead fern; the tree grew out of a precipitous bank just below a road, and though the nest was on the level of the edge it was almost impossible to detect it; it was a very compact thick cup of roots covered with moss outside.  The eggs were larger, more elongated, and much more richly coloured than in the first nest.  Both nests were at about 7000 feet elevation, and in both instances the bird sat very close.”

The eggs of this species are, as might be expected, very similar to those of G. lanceolatus, but they are perhaps slightly larger, and the markings somewhat coarser.  The eggs are rather broad ovals, a good deal pointed towards one end.  The ground-colour is pale greenish white, and they are pretty finely freckled and speckled (most densely so towards the large end, where the markings are almost confluent) with dull, rather pale, olive-brown, amongst which a little speckling and clouding of pale greyish purple is observable.  The eggs are decidedly smaller than those of the English Jay, and few of the specimens I have exhibit any of those black hair-like lines often noticeable in both the English Jay and G. lanceolatus.

In length the eggs that I have measured varied from 1.1 to 1.21, and in breadth they only varied from 0.84 to 0.87.

27.  Nucifraga hemispila, Vigors. The Himalayan Nutcracker.

Nucifraga hemispila, Vig., Jerd.  B. Ind. ii, p. 304; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 666.

The Himalayan Nutcracker is very common in the fir-clad hills north of Simla, where it particularly affects forests of the so-called pencil cedar, which is, I think, the Pinus excelsa.  I have never been able to obtain the eggs, for they must lay in March or early in April; but I have found the nest near Fagoo early in May with nearly full-fledged young ones, and my people have taken them with young in April below the Jalouri Pass.