OEOCrCITLA. 99 



Mr. J. Davidson, when bird-nesting on the Kondabhari Ghat, 

 referring to the events of the 14th July, says : — " I also found a 

 nest containing three nearly full-grown young and one addled egg 

 of G. cyanotis. This Thrush is not common here, and this seems, 

 in this part of the country, about its northern limit, and it is only 

 a migrant arriving in the rains ; it is, however, common enougli 

 along the ridge running eastward from the Ghats immediately 

 north of Js^asik." 



Mr. J. L. Darling, ^an., to whom I am indebted for the eggs of 

 this species, has favoured me with the following note in regard to 

 its nidifieatiou. He says: — "The first nest that I found of the 

 White-throated Ground-Thrush I took on Kulputty Hill, in the 

 Wynaad (^Malabar), at an elevation of about 2S00 feet above the 

 sea. It was placed in a small tree, in a fork about 11 feet from 

 the ground, precisely in the same kind of situation as our jN^ilghiri 

 Blackbird would choose. The nest, too, was very like a Blackbird's 

 — a foundation of leaves and sandy clay, the main body of the nest 

 composed of roots, intermingled with a few twigs and a little 

 grass, and the cavity lined with roots and slender petioles of the 

 nelly-kai. 



" This nest contained three partly-incubated eggs. The birds 

 were very shy ; I visited the nest four times before I shot the 

 male, and six before I shot the female. Directly I approached the 

 nest the bird noiselessly droppad on to the ground and crept away 

 through the brushwood. When disturbing them I noticed that 

 their call was low and sweet like that of the Blackbird when 

 similarlv disturbed. 



" On the 9th I found a second nest, this time about 500 feet 

 lower, at the foot of the hill. It was built in a loquat tree, in a 

 fork about 22 feet from the ground, and was in every respect 

 similar to the last except that a little moss had been used in its 

 construction. The birds were very brave, defending their nest 

 against one of those thieves of Crow-Pheasants, and it was the 

 noise they made that attracted me to the nest. Again I was 

 struck with the great similarity of their notes to those of the 

 Blackbird when its nest is being robbed. This nest contained four 

 I)erfectly fresh eggs, of which 1 took three, and then watched the 

 old bii'ds return to the nest, where they broke the one egg I had 

 left to pieces. They have, ho\^ever, begun another nest in a jack 

 tree close by. 



" Their song is never heard except in the early mornings and 

 evenings, and mostly in the latter. They go hopping about under 

 the coifee-trees, and scratching up and turning over the leaves in 

 search of food." 



Mr. Ehodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, savs : — " It 

 breeds in the forests of the western coast in August and September, 

 building in small trees. The nest is composed of grass, leaves, 

 twigs, &c., with the usual clay foundation which is found in almost 

 all Thrushes' nests, and is lined with fine roots and hairs. The eggs 

 are from three to four in number, of a pale greyish-blue colour, 



