TROCHALOPTERUM. 165 
black with pinkish-white edges and the lores, cheeks, chin and 
upper throat are black. The upper tail-coverts are olive-green. 
Colours of soft parts. Bill dark horny-brown or blackish brown; 
legs dark fleshy or yellowish brown; iris grey-brown; “red” 
(Jerdon). 
Measurements. Total length about 260 to 270 mm.; wing 100 
to 105 mm.; tail 112 to 115mm.; tarsus about 38 mm.; culmen 
about 21 to 22mm. oy kK jam 
Distribution. Eastern—Nepat to the Daphla and Mikir Hills in 
Assam. 
Nidification. Breeds throughout its nee in the months of 
April, May and early June at elevations of 5,500 feet upwards. 
The nest is a massive deep cup made of leaces grass and a large 
proportion of moss, bound together with tendrils and roots. The 
lining generally consists of “fine roots with an inner lining of 
Fig. 29.—Head of 7) e. nigrimentui. 
matted dead leaves, but this latter is not always present. Most 
nests are placed in thick bushes, but others may be found on small 
saplings, and the site selected is either the fringe of forest and 
heavy jungle or scrub-jungle and secondary growth. The eggs 
number two or three and are like those of the rest of the genus, 
but are generally very sparsely marked. Seventeen eggs average 
about 28°7 x 21:1 mm. 
Habits. This is a bird of high elevations from 5,000 up to 
9,000 feet or more. It has the usual habits of the genus and is 
quite common in the woods round about Darjeeling, where in the 
early morning and evening it may often be surprised on the roads 
and jungle paths, hunting in small parties for insects in the cattle 
droppings, but scuttling off promptly into cover when disturbed. 
(151) Trochalopterum erythrocephalum godwini. 
Gopwin-AvstTen’s RED-HEADED LAUGHING-THRUSH. 
Trochalopterum erythrocephalum godwint Harington, Bull. B.O. C 
xxxii, p. 92 (i914) (Hengdan, N. Cachar Hills). 
Vernacular names. Dao-qua-lok (Cachari). 
