ots, and finished off interiorly
with finer fibres and roots; depth about 2 inches; inside diameter 6
inches. Contained three eggs nearly hatched; all got broken; I have
the fragments of one. The ground-colour is greenish white, much
spotted and freckled with pale yellowish-brown spots and dashes, more
so at the larger end than elsewhere."
Sundry fragments that reached me, kindly sent to me by Mr. Oates, had
a dull white ground, very thickly freckled and mottled all over, as
far as I could judge, with dull, pale, yellowish brown and purplish
grey, the former preponderating greatly. As to size and shape, this
deponent sayeth nought.
Major Bingham writes from Tenasserim:--"On the 18th April I found a
nest of this most lovely bird placed at a height of 5 feet from the
ground in the fork of a bamboo-bush. It was a broad, massive, and
rather shallow cup of twigs, roots, and bamboo-leaves outside, and
lined with finer roots. It contained three eggs of a pale greenish
stone-colour, thickly and very minutely speckled with brown, which
tend to coalesce and form a cap at the larger end. I shot the female
as she flew off the nest."
Major Bingham subsequently found another nest in Tenasserim, about
which he says:--
"Crossing the Wananatchoung, a little tributary of the Thoungyeen, by
the highroad leading from Meeawuddy to the sources of the Thoungyeen,
I found in a small thorny tree on the 8th April a nest of the above
bird--a great, firmly-built but shallow saucer of twigs, 6 feet or so
above the ground, and lined with fine black roots. It contained three
fresh eggs of a dingy greyish white, thickly speckled chiefly at the
large end, where it forms a cap, with light purplish brown. The eggs
measure 1.25 x 0.89, 1.18 x 0.92, and 1.20 x 0.90."
Mr. James Inglis notes from Cachar:--"This Jay is rather rare; it
frequents low quiet jungle. In April last a Kuki brought me three
young ones he had taken from a nest in a clump of tree-jungle; he said
the nest was some 20 feet from the ground and made of bamboo-leaves
and grass."
A nest of this species taken below Yendong in Native Sikhim, on the
28th April, contained four fresh eggs. It was placed on the branches
of a medium-sized tree at a height of about 12 feet from the ground;
it was a large oval saucer, 8 inches by 6, and about 2.5 in depth,
composed mainly of dry bamboo-leaves, bound firmly together with fine
stems of creepers, and was lined with moderately fine roots; t
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