54 CEATEEOPODID^. 



eggs occur in this family, but I have seen noue like them. They 

 are of course entirely unspotted. 



In length they vary from 1'16 to 1*25, and in breadtli from 0-8 

 to 0'86 ; but the average of some twenty eggs measured is 1'22 

 by 0-83. 



78. lanthocincla ocellata (Vig.). The White-spotted 

 Laughing- Thrush, 



Garrulax ocellatus ( Viq.), Jcrd. B. Ind. ii, p. 41 ; Hume, Roiu/h 

 Draft N. 8^- E. no. 414. 



I \now nothiug personally of the nidification of the White- 

 spotted Laughing-Thrush, which breeds nowhere, so far as I know, 

 west of Nepal, but I had a nest with a couple of eggs and one of the 

 parent-birds sent me from Darjeeling. The nest was taken in May 

 in one of the low warm valleys leading to the Great Runjeet, and 

 is said to have been placed close to the ground in a thick clump of 

 fern and grass. The nest is chiefly composed of these, intermingled 

 with moss and roots, and is a large loose structure some 7 inches 

 in diameter. 



Mr. Blyth remarked in ' The Ibis ' (1867) that this species was 

 " surely a Troclicdopteron rather than a Garrulax,^'' and the eggs 

 seem to confirm this view. These are long, cylindrical ovals, very 

 obtuse even at the smaller end. They are about the same size as 

 those of Garrula.v aJhigularis, with a very delicate pale blue ground 

 and little or no gloss. One egg is spotless ; the other has a few 

 chocolate-brown specks or spots towards the large end. They 

 measure 1-18 by 0-86 and 1-25 by 0-85. 



80. lanthocincla rufigularis, Grould. The Rufous-chinned 

 Laughing-Thrush. 



Trochalopteron rufogulare (Gould), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 47 ; Hume, 

 Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 421. 



Common as this species is about Simla, I have never yet secured 

 the nest, and know nothing certain about the eggs. 



Captain Hutton says : — " This species appears usually in pairs, 

 sometimes in a family of four or five. It breeds in May, in which 

 month I took a nest, at about 6500 feet elevation, in a retired 

 and Mooded glen ; it was composed of small twigs externally and 

 lined with the fine black fibres of lichens. The nest was placed on 

 a horizontal bough, about 7 feet from the ground, and contained 

 three pure white" eggs. Size 1-12 by 0-69; shape ordinary. The 

 stomach of the old bird contained sand, seed, and the remains of 

 wasps." 



One egg that I possess of this species I owe to Captain Hutton, 

 and it is of the Pomatorhinus type — a long oval, slightly pointed 

 pure white egg, with but little gloss, measuring 1-08 by 0-75. 



