ter, and from less than 2 to nearly
4 inches in depth internally. Coarse grass, flags, creepers, dead
leaves, moss, moss- and grass-roots, all at times enter more or less
largely into the composition of the nest, which, though sometimes
wholly unlined, is often neatly cushioned with red and black fern and
moss-roots. The nests are placed in small bushes, shrubs, or trees, at
heights of from 3 to 10 feet, sometimes in forks, but more often,
I think, on low horizontal branches, between two or three upright
shoots.

Three is, I think, the regular complement of eggs, and this is the
number I have always found when the eggs were much incubated. I have
not myself observed that this species breeds in company, nor can I
ever remember to have taken two nests within 100 yards of each other.

Captain Hutton remarks:--"This is very common in Mussoorie at all
seasons, and congregates into large and noisy flocks, turning up the
dead leaves, and screaming and chattering together in most discordant
concert. It breeds in April and May, placing the nest in the forks of
young oaks and other trees, about 7 or 8 feet from the ground,
though sometimes higher, and fastening the sides of it firmly to the
supporting twigs by tendrils of climbing-plants. It is sometimes
composed externally almost entirely of such woody tendrils, intermixed
with a few other twigs, and lined with black hair-like fibres of
mosses and lichens; at other times it is externally composed of coarse
dry grasses and leaves of different kinds of orchids, and lined with
fibres, the materials varying with the locality. The eggs are of a
deep and beautiful green, shining as if recently varnished, and three
in number. In shape they taper somewhat suddenly to the smaller end,
which may almost be termed obtusely pointed. The size 1.19 by 0.87
inch. The usual number of eggs is three, though sometimes only one or
two are found; but only on one occasion out of more than a dozen nests
have I found four eggs. The old bird will remain on the nest until
within reach of the hand."

From Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall writes:--"This was the most
beautiful egg taken this season, being of a rich, deep, glossy,
greenish-blue colour. The nest is composed of fresh ivy-twigs, with
the leaves attached, tightly woven together. The birds breed on small
trees, not high up, at the end of a branch. While their nests were
being examined, they came round in flocks to see what was happening,
chatte