eenish white, and intermediate shades occur, and they are very
minutely and feebly freckled and mottled over the whole surface with a
somewhat pale sepia-brown. This mottling differs much in intensity; in
some few eggs indeed it is absolutely wanting, while in others, though
feeble elsewhere, it forms a distinct, though undefined, brownish cap
or zone at the large end. The eggs generally have little or no gloss.
It is not uncommon to find a few hair-like dark brown lines, more or
less zigzag, about the larger end.

In length they vary from 1.03 to 1.23, and in breadth from 0.78 to
0.88; but the average of twenty-four eggs is 1.12 by 0.85.

25. Garrulus leucotis, Hume. _The Burmese Jay_.

Garrulus leucotis, _Hume, Hume, Cat._ no. 669 bis.

The nest of this Jay has not yet been found, but Capt. Bingham
writes:--

"Like Mr. Davison I have found this very handsome Jay affecting only
the dry _Dillenia_ and pine-forests so common in the Thoungyeen
valley. I have seen it feeding on the ground in such places with
_Gecinus nigrigenys, Upupa longirostris_, and other birds. I shot one
specimen, a female, in April, near the Meplay river, that must have
had a nest somewhere, which, however, I failed to find, for she had a
full-formed but shell-less egg inside her."

26. Garrulus bispecularis, Vigors. _The Himalayan Jay_.

Garrulus bispecularis, _Vig., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 307; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 669.

The Himalayan Jay breeds pretty well throughout the lower ranges of
the Himalayas. It is nowhere, that I have seen, numerically very
abundant, but it is to be met with everywhere. It lays in March and
April, and, though I have never taken the nest myself, I have now
repeatedly had it sent me. It builds at moderate heights, rarely above
25 feet from the ground, in trees or thick shrubs, at elevations of
from 3000 to 7000 feet. The nest is a moderate-sized one, 6 to 8
inches in external diameter, composed of fine twigs and grass, and
lined with finer grass and roots.

The nest is usually placed in a fork.

The eggs are four to six in number.

Mr. Hodgson notes that he "found a nest" of this species "on the 20th
April, in the forest of Shewpoori, at an elevation of 7000 feet. The
nest was placed in the midst of a large tree in a fork. The nest was
very shallow, but regularly formed and compact. It was composed of
long seeding grasses wound round and round, and lined with finer
and more elastic grass-stems.