handsome eggs as those of the erythrocephalum group. Eight eggs average 28*5 x 20*5 mm.
Habits. Similar to those of other Laughing-Thrushes, but perhaps they are rather more often seen frequenting low trees as well as undergrowth. It is found between 4,000 and 8,000 feet.
(163) Trochalopterum variegatum simile.
The Western Variegated Laughing-Thrush.
- Trochalopteron simile Hume, Ibis, 1871, p. 408 (Far N.W. Gilgit) : Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 96.
Vernacular names. None recorded.
Description. Diifers from the Eastern form in having the outer webs of the wing-feathers slaty blue and in having the yellow on the tail replaced with the same slaty-blue.
Colours of soft parts. Legs and feet flesh-colour; bill black; iris brown (Dr. G. Henderson).
Measurements as in the last bird.
Distribution. The Western portion of Kashmir and the Hazara country. Very common in the galis round about Murree and Naini-Tal, extends up the Grilgit Valley above Gilgit and up to the frontier of Afghanistan.
Nidification. Breeds very commonly from Murree south-west-wards, being found up to some 10,000 feet and down to 5,000 feet. The nest is a big cup with very thick walls composed of grass, leaves, tine twigs and roots, lined with the latter, and measuring anything from 5 to 9 inches in diameter by 5 or 6 deep. The internal cup is about 4 by 2½ inches deep. It is usually placed well up in a fir, deodar or other tree, sometimes as high as 25 feet and seldom low down in bushes. The eggs number 'three or four, rarely five, and are like those of the last bird, but generally more blotched or spotted and less freckled. Fifty eggs average 27*8 x 21*0 mm.
The breeding season is from the beginning of May to the end of June.
Habits. This Laughing-Thrush, like the last, is much more of a tree bird than most others of the genus, and will be found quite • as often hunting for insects well up in the trees as low down in the undergrowth and bushes. It is found up to at least 10,000 feet, and possibly higher, and in winter descends to about 4,000 feet.
(164) Trochalopterum squamatum.
The Blue-winged Laughing-Thrush.
- lanthocincla squmata Gould, P. Z. S., 1835, p. 48 (Himalayas, Sikkim).
- Trochalopterum squamatum.. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 96.
Vernacular names. Tarmal-pho (Lepcha); Nabom (Bhut.); Wo-krang-mut (Kachin).
