5PROCHALOPTERUM. 163 



Key to Subspecies. 



A. Back and breast with large black round 



spots. 

 a. No conspicuous grey supercilium. 



a'. Ear-coverts chestnut, tipped black [p. 163. 



and white T. e. erythrocephalum, 



b'. Ear-coverts black, edged pinkish 



white T. e. nigrimentum, p. 164. 



c'. Ear-coverts chestnut like the crown . T. e. erytkrokema, p. 164. 

 b. A conspicuous grey supercilium. 



d'. Ear-coverts chestnut T.e. godivini, p. 165. 



e'. Ear-coverts grey with black shaft- 

 stripes T.e. woodi, p. 166. 



13. Back and breast with brown oval spots . . T. e. chryscpterum, p. 166. 

 O. No spots on back or breast. 



c. Chin aud throat only rufous T.e. melanostigma, p. 167. 



d. Chin, throat and breast rufous T. e. ramsayi, p. 168. 



,(148) Trochalopterum erythrocephalum erythrocephalum. 

 THE RED-HEADED LAUGHING-THRUSH. 



Cinclosoma erythrocephalum Vigors, P. Z. S., 1831, p. 171 (Hima- 

 layas, Chamba). 

 Trochalopterum erythrocephalum. Blanf. & Gates, i, p. 89. 



Vernacular names. None recorded. 



Description. Forehead, crown and nape chestnut ; ear-coverts 

 -chestnut, each feather blackish near the tip and edged with white ; 

 'lores, chin and upper throat black, with a chocolate tinge ; cheeks 

 mingled chestnut and black ; mantle and sides of neck olive-brown, 

 -each feather with a semicircular black mark near the end, lower 

 back plain olive-brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts slaty-grey ; tail 

 ashy, suffused with golden yellow on the outer webs ; wing- 

 coverts olive-brown, the greater broadly tipped with deep ferru- 

 ginous ; primary -co verts and winglet yellow on the outer webs, 

 ashy on the inuer; outer webs of primaries and outer secondaries 

 bright golden yellow ; inner secondaries and tips of outer ashy- 

 blue ; the base of the outer webs of the outer secondaries golden 

 red ; lower plumage pale fulvous, washed with olivaceous on the 

 sides of the body and under tail-coverts, each feather of the throat 

 and breast with a narrow crescentic black bar near the end and 

 tipped with fulvous white. 



Colours of soft parts. Iris grey-brown or yellow-brown ; bill 

 black ; legs and feet pale yellowish- or fleshy-brown or light 

 brown. 



Measurements. Length about 280mm. ; wing 102 to 105mm.; 

 tail about 120 to 125 mm. ; tarsus 37to 38 mm. ; culmen about 20 to 

 22 mm. 



Distribution. The Himalayas from Chamba to Nepal. 



Nidification. This Laughing-Thrush breeds in May and June at 

 'heights from 4,000 to 7,000 feet or more, making the usual cup- 



M2 



