TKOCHALOPXEEUM. 175 



Description. A black streak over the eye from lores to nape ; 

 lores grey or t'Lilvous-brown ; sides of head olivaceous or rufous ; 

 upper tail-coverts chestnut, remaining upper plumage rufescent 

 olive-brown, each featlier with a terminal lunate black tip ; in 

 birds which have the lores and sides of the head olivaceous the 

 crown is ashy ; wing-coverts chestnut, dusky internally ; primary- 

 coverts dusky edged with black ; outer web of outer primaries 

 pale blue, iuner primaries black ; secondaries chestnut at the 

 base; remainder of wing black, the later (juills minutely tipped 

 white; lower plumage fulvous, each featlier with a terminal black 

 bar; under tail-coverts and thighs castaneous. 



Birds with grey crowns have the tail deep black, the others 

 have it bronze-colour with a chestnut tip. 



The variations in colour seem dne to neither sex nor a^e. I 

 liave found all in both sexes and in pairs breeding together, and 

 they appear to form one of those curious dimorphic colorations, 

 the necessity for the evolution of which naturalists have not yet 

 been able to detect. 



Colours of soft parts. Legs and feet pale flesh to fleshy-brown ; 

 bill horny black, paler and greyer at tip and on base of lower 

 mandible; iris pale greenish or bluish white; glaucous-brown or 

 dull brown, these latter probably only in young. 



Measurements. Length about 250 to 260 mm.; wing 93 to 

 99mm.; tail about 100 mm.; tarsus about 37 mm.; culinen 

 about 20 mm. 



Distribution. The Himalayas from Nepal to the Kachin Hills ; 

 hill-ranges North of the Brahmaputra to N. Arrakan, and Chin 

 Hills and Shan States. 



Nidification. The bird breeds at all heights between 3,000 and 

 6,000 feet and in Nepal (i^w/e Hodgson) as low as 2,000. The nest is 

 the usual bulky cup in shape, fairly com|)act, and made principally 

 of dead leaves intermixed with roots, tendrils and grass, and lined 

 with roots. It is always placed low down in some thick bush or 

 tangle of creepers, often within a foot or two of the ground. The 

 eggs, two or three in number, are s otless blue-green, the texture 

 very smooth and fine but soft and ^almost glossless. i'ifty eggs 

 average 29-4 x 20*7 mm. 



Habits. The Blue-winged Laughing-Thrush is a bird of humid 

 forests at a comparatively low level. In the hills South of the 

 Brahmaputra it is most common between 3,000 and 5,000 feet, 

 and seems to haunt the banks of streams and rivers far more than 

 the other species of this genus do. It goes about both in pairs 

 and in small family parties, and is conversational rarher than 

 noisy, many of its notes being very rich and full. Its flight is 

 very weak and ill-sustained, but it is as strong and clever on its 

 feet as the rest of the family. 



