180 TIMALIID ®. 
tail about 110 to 115mm.; tarsus about 31 mm.; culmen about 
17mm. 
Distribution. Hills south of the Brahmaputra, Manipur, 
Lushai and Chin Hills. 
Nidification. This Laughing-Thrush breeds throughout its 
range between 3,000 and 8,000 feet, making a deep, compact, 
cup-shaped nest of leaves, roots, bamboo leaves and grass, and 
always with more or fewer tendrils and a little moss. The lining 
is of roots and moss roots or fern-rachides, and the inner cup 
usually measures about 4in. x 2°75 in. or less and the outer about 
6in.x5in. Most nests are placed close to the ground in dense 
tangles of creepers and vines or thick bushes, but they sometimes 
select higher bushes or small saplings for nesting purposes. Eggs 
may be found from May to July. These are either two or three in 
number and are a pale unspotted blue with a soft satiny texture, 
almost glossless though intensely smooth. 100 eggs average 
26°0 x 19°2 mm. 
Habits. This is not a gregarious bird and I have generally seen 
it in pairs only, nor is it as noisy as most of its relations though 
it has some quite sweet conversational and call-notes. It keeps 
almost entirely to thick undergrowth of forests or to the ground 
itself in bracken and brambles. Those I examined had ted on 
insects only, chiefly a small grasshopper and a very odoriferous 
little bug, but doubtless they also eat seeds. They are found 
up to 8,000 feet or over and never descend below some 3,000 feet. 
Trochalopterum lineatum. 
Key to Subspecies. 
A. Head and mantle ashy with dusky streaks. 
a. Lower plumage rufescent. 
a’. Grey margins to feathers narrow .. 7’. /. lineatum, p. 180. 
b'. Grey margins to feathers broad .... 7. d. griseicentior, p. 181. 
b. Lower plumage paler and more grey. 
ce’. Ear-coverts chestnut.......... soe. Lt. Gtlgatp. 182: 
d', Ear-coverts pale rusty ..... Rene daes T. l. xiaratensis, p. 182. 
B. Head and mantle reddish brown with 
elistening black shaft-stripes ........ T. l. imbricatum, p. 183. 
(171) Trochalopterum lineatum lineatum. 
THe NEPALESE STREAKED LAuGHING-THRUSH, 
Cinclosoma lineatum Vigors, P. Z.S., 1831, p. 56 (Nepal). 
Trochalopterum lineatum. Blanf. & Oates, 1, p. 101. 
Vernacular names. None recorded. 
Description. Forehead, crown, nape and mantle dark ashy 
streaked with dusky, the shafts black; lower back and wing- 
coverts reddish brown, the shafts white; rump and upper tail- 
