GEOCICHLA. 



upon the ground, where they find it in berries and insects among 

 the withered leaves, which they expertly turn over with their beaks, 

 and hence the reason why the beak is almost invariably clothed 

 with mud or other dirt. I have never seen these birds except in 

 woods." 



According to Mr. Hodgson's notes the Orange-headed Ground- 

 Thrush breeds in Nepal and Sikhim in April and May up to a height 

 of 4000 or 5000 feet. It constructs a broad saucer-shaped nest 

 some 5*5 inches in diameter and 2'25 in depth, externally of green 

 rock-moss, and lines it with the dry leaves of Pinus longifolia. 

 The cavity is about 3 inches in diameter, and about 1-5 in depth. 

 It is placed in some convenient fork in a tree where three or four 

 slender sprays diverge, and it lays three or four eggs. 



Mr. B,. Thompson, writing from Ktimaon, says : "I have never 

 found this bird except at 1500 to 2000 feet elevation at most. It 

 arrives in our forests at the beginning of April, when the males 

 begin to utter their sweet yet loud notes, and commence breeding 

 operations." 



From Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall tells us that this species 

 " builds about the beginning of June in the fork of a low tree about 

 6 feet up. Lays three eggs, pale greenish white, finely speckled 

 with rufous-brown, forming a patch at the larger end, 1 inch in 

 length, 0-8 in breadth." 



From Sikhim I received two nests of this species found in July 

 in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling. The one contained two, the* 

 other a single fresh egg. One was placed in a bamboo clump at a 

 height of about 5 feet from the ground, between the stem and a 

 number of radiating twigs springing from the joint. The other on 

 the branches of a large tree at a height of about 7 feet from the 

 ground. 



A nest sent me by Mr. Mandelli, which was placed in a fork in 

 a bamboo cluster at about five feet from the ground, is a very 

 loose untidy nest, composed exteriorly of dead leaves, bamboo- 

 spnthes, a few twigs and pieces of decayed bamboo, all wound 

 together with vegetable fibre. The whole of the nest is composed 

 of much the same materials, except that interiorly there are more 

 chips of rotten bamboo and more vegetable fibre and very little 

 dead leaf ; there is a mere pretence for a lining, a dozen or so very 

 fine wire-like twigs being wound round at the bottom of the 

 cavity. 



This Thrush breeds in Burma, and Mr. Gates writes : " May 

 22nd. Xest in a shrub in a ravine near Pegu, about four feet from 

 the ground, made of roots and strips of soft bark, the ends of some 

 of the latter hanging down a foot or more. The interior lined 

 with moss and fern-roots. Interior and exterior diameters 4 and 

 5 inches respectively. Inside depth about 2, and bottom of nest 

 about 1 inch thick. Contained three eggs quite fresh, measuring 

 1-04, 1, and 1-06 by 0'75, 0-76, and 0'79 respectively. A fourth 

 egg found on the ground near the nest was 1*03 by 0*78. 



** Another nest with three eggs was found on the 10th June." 



