102 TUKDID.E. 



The eggs are a broad oval, much pointed towards one end, about 

 the size and shape of the European Water-Ouzel's egg. The 

 ground-colour is dull greyish or greenish white, and each has a 

 conspicuous mottled and speckled red-brown cap at the large end. 

 The cap is not sharply defined, and beyond it specklings and minute 

 streaks of the same colour extend more or less over the whole of 

 the rest of the surface of the egg ; in some cases ceasing entirely, 

 in others diminishing in frequency as they approach the smaller 

 end. 



Some of the eggs of this species have a very fine gloss, and most 

 of them are fairly glossy. In some the markings are brighter and 

 redder, in others duller and browner. Dull purple markings are 

 generally intermingled in the cap, and though this is generally at 

 the larger end 1 have one egg in which it is at the smaller end. 



In length the eggs vary from 0'82 to I'l inch, and in breadth 

 from 0-7 to 0'82 inch ; but the average of a dozen eggs is 0'99 by 

 077 inch. 



690. Petrophila erythrogaster (Vigors). The Chestnut-bellied 

 Hock-Thrush. 



Orocetes erythrogastra ( Vig.}, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 514. 

 Petrophila erythrogaster ( Viy'), Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. 

 no. 352. 



I have only once seen the nest of the Chestnut- bellied Kock- 

 Thrush, and that was at the end of May, above Jatingere, towards 

 the Bubboo Pass from Kangra into Kooloo. It was placed at the 

 root of a tree in a forest, and was a large shallow saucer, composed 

 almost entirely of moss and lined with moss-roots ; a few dead 

 leaves were intermingled at the base of the nest. It measured 

 about 6 inches across, but I ascertained no particulars, for, having 

 gently caught the female on the nest with my hand and lifted her, 

 I found four chicks just out or struggling out of the shells, and so 

 put her back again on the nest, where she sat immovably with her 

 little head on one side, watching me with her bright dark eye, but 

 apparently satisfied that I was up to no mischief. 



Mr. E. Thompson says that " in Kumaon they lay in June and 

 July, making a circular nest of mosses, twigs, and small roots, 

 some 6 inches in diameter, on the ground, under a rock or stump, 

 or in a hole. They affect northern well- wooded slopes from 6000 

 feet upwards." 



At Dhurumsala, Captain Cock obtained a nest on the 20th May 

 containing three fresh eggs, which varied in length from 0*9 to 

 0-95 inch ; they were all 0*7 inch in breadth. These eggs were 

 very small, judging from the few I have seen and measured ; 1 by 

 | inch is the average size. 



In Nepal, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, " this species begins 

 to lay during April. It builds a large shallow circular nest on 

 ledges of rocks, composed of grass-stems and moss, and lined with 

 fine roots. One such nest measured exteriorly *> inches in diameter 



