TROCHALOPTERUM. 167 
Distribution. Khasia Hills ouly. 
Nidification. The breeding season of this subspecies commences 
in the end of April and ceases in the first week in June, though an 
odd nest or so, perhaps a‘second brood, may be found as late as 
August. The nest is a wide, shallow cup of moss, roots, grasses 
and dead leaves, bound together with roots, tendrils and stems of 
reeds and is lined with roots, fern-rachides or, rarely, fine grass. 
It is a fairly well-built nest, and often looks much lke that of 
some of the true Thrushes. No attempt seems to be made at 
concealment, and it is usually placed in some tall, thinly foliaged 
bush, about 6 feet from the ground, in pine- or evergreen-forest. 
The eggs are generally two only in number, sometimes three 
and very rarely four. In type of coloration they are like those of 
erythrocephalum, but are more boldly marked with a few black or 
deep purply-red blotches, spots or lines. In a few eggs these 
markings are very scanty, but in some are more numerous than 
in the eggs of other races of this Laughing-Thrush. The average 
of 50 eggs is 30°6 x 21°6 mm. 
Habits. Those of the genus. A bird of the pine-forests from 
4,000 feet upwards. 
(154) Trochalopterum erythrocephalum melanostigma. 
Briyru’s Rep-HpapeD LavGHInG-THRuUSH. 
Garrulax melanostiyma Blyth, J. A. 8. B., xxiv, p. 268 (1859) 
(Mt. Muleyit). 
Trochalopterum melanostigma. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 92. 
Vernacular names. None recorded. 
Description. Forehead, lores and cheeks black, the black of 
the lores extending to over the eye and merging in a short grey 
supercilium ; ear-coverts and sides of the neck silvery-grey 
streaked with black; throat and upper breast ferruginous, paling 
on lower breast and abdomen and becoming olive-grey on flanks 
and under tail-coverts. No spots on either back or breast. 
Colours of soft parts. Legs, feet and claws very pale brown 
to reddish ; bill black ; iris brown or hazel-brown (Hume & Davis.). 
Distribution. Muleyit Mount, Tenasserim, and thence north- 
wards into the Shan States. 
Nidification. Nests and eggs taken by Mr. C. Hopwood 
resemble those of 7. e. chrysopterum, his eggs measure 30°5 x 
20°4 mm. 
Habits. According to Davison these birds keep in parties of six 
or eight, feeding chiefly on the ground and keeping much in the 
brush-wood. They are neither very noisy nor very silent, uttering 
from time to time a fine whistling call in addition to other 
numerous conversational notes. They appear to feed exclusively 
on insects. 
