172 TIMALIID. 
forests and groves. It lays three or four spotless blue eggs which 
measure about 26°1 x 17:7 mm. 
Habits. This is a bird of very high elevations, being found as 
high as 11,000 and not below 6,000 feet. 
(161) Trochalopterum affine affine. 
THe Brack-raceD LavuGHING-THRUSH. 
Garrulax affins (Hodgs.), Blyth, J. A. S. B., xii, p. 950 (1843) 
(Nepal). 
Trochalopterum affine. Blanf. & Oates, 1, p. 94. 
Vernacular names. None recorded. 
Description. Forehead, crown and nape dark brown tinged with 
rufous, paler on the forehead; lores and sides of head black: 
cheeks and a large patch behind the ear-coverts white, extending 
to, and becoming pale rufous on, the sides of the neck; hind neck 
rufous-brown blending with the darker brown of the head ; back 
and scapulars rufous-brown, each rather broadly terminated with 
pale grey ; rump olive-brown ; upper tail-coverts ferruginous ; tail 
slaty-blue, three-quarters of the central feathers and the outer webs 
of the others overlaid with bright golden yellow; wing-coverts 
rufous; primary-coverts black; winglet and inner secondaries 
slaty-blue ; outer webs of outer secondaries and primaries bright 
golden yellow, slaty-blue at tips and bases; chin black, throat 
rufous-brown ; breast paler and each feather edged with grey ; 
remainder of lower plumage rufous-brown. 
Colours of soft parts. Bill black; feet reddish brown; iris from 
olive-grey (Blanf.) to brown (Jerdon). 
Measurements. Length about 250 to 260 mm.; wing 102 to 116 
mm.; tail about 125 mm.; culmen about 21 to 22 mm.; tarsus 
about 40 mm. 
Distribution. Eastern Nepal to Bhutan. 
Nidification. Osmaston took nests in May and June in Sikkim 
at altitudes between 9,000 and 10,000 feet. ‘*The nests were 
rather massive but neat cups, about 8 inches in external diameter 
and were composed of moss, thin twigs and dried grass stems, 
lined copiously with black rhizomorph of a fungus mixed with 
some birch-bark ‘ paper’.” The nests were placed in rhodo- 
dendron and viburnum bushes, 5 to 8 feet from the ground. The 
eges generally number two only, but three were in one nest 
taken by Mr. W. P. Masson. In ground-colour they are Thrush- 
egg blue with a few spots and blotches of purplish black at the 
larger end. Twelve eggs average 28°5 x 21:2 mm. 
Habits. This is a common bird in Sikkim between 8,000 and 
13,000 feet, haunting both rhododendron, fir and mixed forest 
right up to the snow-line. It is apparently generally found in 
pairs and not in flocks, but otherwise its habits resemble those of 
the genus. 
