Mr. W. Theobald makes the following remarks on its nidification in the
Valley of Cashmere:--
"Lays in the first week of May; eggs four, five, and six in number,
ovato-pyriform and long ovato-pyriform, measuring from 1·26, 1·45, to
1·60 in length, and from 0·9 to 1·00 in breadth; colour pale,
clear bluish green, dotted and spotted with brownish black; valley
generally; in holes of rocks, beneath roofs, and in tall trees."
Dr. Jerdon says:--"It builds in Cashmere in old ruined palaces, holes
in rocks, beneath roofs of houses, and also in tall trees, laying four
to six eggs, pale bluish green, clotted and spotted with brownish
black."
Mr. Brookes writes:--"The Jackdaw breeds in Cashmere in all suitable
places: holes in old Chinar (Plane) trees, and in house-walls, under
the eaves of houses, &c. I did not note the materials of the nests,
but these will be the same as in England."
The eggs of this species are typically rather elongated ovals,
somewhat compressed towards one end. The shell is fine, but has only a
faint gloss. The ground-colour is a pale greenish white, but in some
eggs there is very little green, while in a very few the ground is
quite a bright green. The markings, sometimes very fine and close,
sometimes rather bold and thinly set, consist of specks or spots of
deep blackish brown, olive-brown, and pale inky purple. In most eggs
all these colours are represented, but in some eggs the olive-, in
others the blackish-brown is almost entirely wanting. In some eggs
the markings are very dense towards the large end, in others they are
pretty uniformly distributed over the whole surface; in some they are
very minute and speckly, in others they average the tenth of an inch
in diameter.
The eggs that I possess vary from 1·34 to 1·52 in length, and from
0·93 to 1·02 in breadth; but the average of sixteen eggs was 1·4 by
0·98.