172 TIMALIID-i;. 



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. 



Trochalopterum affine affine. 

 THE BLACK-PACED LAUGHING-THRUSH. 



Garrulax affinis (Hodgs.), Blyth, J. A. S. B v xii, p. 950 (1843) 



(Nepal). 

 Trochalopterum affine. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 94. 



Vernacular names. JSTone 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 pule 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; wiriglet 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 115 

 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 steins, 

 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 

 eggs 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. 



