JAY-THRUSHES. 



47 



or five in number, but on several occasions I have found 

 as few as two well-set eggs." 



The author observes : " Numerous nests of this 

 species have been sent me, taken in May, June, and 

 July, at elevations of from 2,000 to fully 4,000 feet, and 

 in one case it is said 5,000. They are all very similar, 

 large, very shallow cups, from 6 to nearly 8 inches in 

 external diameter, and from 2.5 to 3.5 in height ; ex- 

 teriorly all are composed of coarse grass, of bamboo - 

 .spathes, with occasionally a few dead leaves inter- 

 mingled, loosely wound round with creepers or. pliant 

 twigs, while interiorly they are composed and lined 

 with black, only moderately fine roots or pliant flower- 

 stems of some flowering-tree, or both. Sometimes the 

 exterior coating of grass is not very coarse ; at other 

 times bamboo-spathes exclusively are used, and the nest 

 seems to be completely packed up in these." 



According to Russ, this species is rare in the trade ; 

 it reached the Zoological Gardens of London and 

 Amsterdam in 1876 ; scon afterwards Messrs. E. Linden 

 and E. von Schleototendal secured specimens. The 

 former gentleman observes : " I received this bird from 

 Jamrach of London as a Crested Pekoe, with the in- 

 formation that it was a good singer. Now, if one does 

 not take the matter of song literally, but accepts _in its 

 -place an unsatisfactory vocal organ, that assertion is 

 justifiable. Its perpetual restlessness and constant 

 movement is, as it were, accompanied by a subdued 

 murmuring, somewhat as in the case of a person who 

 has a habit of humming something to himself. The loud 

 tones most nearly resemble a quickly jerked out laugh, 

 and this passes into a loud rattle." In nine cases out 

 of ten, if a dealer goes out of his way to praise the song 

 of a bird in order to dispose of it to a customer one 

 may expect to be disappointed. 



WHITE-THROATED JAY-THRUSH (Garrulax albogularis). 

 Upperside olivaceous-brown ; forehead yellowish- 

 brown ; lores and a streak below the eye black ; flights 

 darker brown with naler inner margins ; tail-feathers 

 greenish-brown, with black-brown bands and broad 

 white margins ; the two central ones uniformly 

 greenish-brown ; angle of lower mandible and throat 

 white ; upper breast dull greenish-brown ; remainder of 

 under surface yellowish rust-coloured ; the sides and 

 under tail-coverts deeper in colour ; bill black-brown ; 

 feet horn-grey ; irides bluish-grey. The female only 

 differs as usual. Hab., Himalayas generally from 

 Bootan to Simla ; more common in the North-west than 

 in the East. " It prefers rather high elevations, from 

 6,000 to 9,000 feet and upwards ; lives in large flocks, 

 feeding mostly on the ground, among bamboos and 

 brush-wood, and every now and then screaming and 

 chattering, but not so loudly or discordantly as some of 

 the others. Hutton, who says that it is very common 

 at Mussooree, found the nest ' about seven or eight feet 

 from the ground, of woody tendrils, twigs, fibres, or ab 

 times of grass and leaves, and with three beautiful shin- 

 ing green eggs.' It is not very common at Darjeeling, 

 and is not found below 6,000 or 7,000 feet." Jerdon, 

 'Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 39. 



In Oates's edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of 

 Indian Birds" we read : "The White-throated Laugih- 

 mg-Thrush ibreeds throughout the lower southern ranges 

 of the Himalayas from Assam to Afghanistan at eleva- 

 tions of from 4,000 to 8,000 feet. They lay from the com- 

 mencement of April to the end of June. The nest 

 varies in shape from a moderately deep cup to a broad 

 shallow saucer, and from 5 to 7 or even 8 inches in 

 external diameter, and from less than 2 to nearly 4 

 inches in depth internally. Coarse grass, flags, creepers, 



dead leaves, moss, moss- and grass-roots, all at times 

 enter more or less largely into the composition of the 

 nest, which, though sometimes wholly unlined, is often 

 neatly cushioned with red and black fern and moss- 

 roots. The nests are placed in small bushes, shrubs, or 

 trees, at heights of from 3 to 10 feet, sometimes in 

 forks, but more often, I think, on low horizontal 

 branches, between two or three upright shoots. " There 

 is, I think, the regular complement of eggs, and this is 

 the number I have always found when the eggs were 

 much incubated. I have not myself observed that this 

 species breeds in company, nor can 1 ever remember to 

 have taken two nests within 100 yards of each other." 



Dr. Russ says that " although this is one of the birds 

 most rarely brought to Europe, it occasionally reaches 

 Zoological Gardens. In the year 1876 it was already in 

 the London Gardens, and at the present time the Zoo- 

 logical Gardens of Berlin possess it." " Fremdlan- 

 dischen Stubenvogel," Vol. II., p. 232. 



BLACK-GORGETED JAY-THRUSH (Garrulax pectoralis). 



Above pale olivaceous-brown, washed with rust- 

 reddish on back and rump ; nape and hind neck bright 

 rust-reddish ; flights with ashy margins ; lateral tail- 

 feathers banded with black and white ; a narrow white 

 eyebrow stripe ; lores, cheeks and ear-coverts greyish 

 or white (sometimes black) enclosed by two narrow 

 black lines from base of bill, which unite behind into 

 a broad band on the sides of the neck and expand into 

 a gorget on the upper breast ; chin white ; neck, throat, 

 breast, and sides of abdomen usually pale fulvous or 

 bright rust-coloured ; middle of lower abdomen, and 

 sometimes the throat and breast white ; bill bluish horn- 

 coloured ; feet greenish lead-coloured ; irides brown, 

 onbital skin dull leaden. Jerdon observes that " this 

 species varies a good deal (according to the locality) in 

 the markings on the ear-coverts, which in some are 

 black, in others white mixed with black, and in some 

 the pectoral band is obsolete. Specimens from the 

 Himalayas have usually the ears silver-grey, whilst 

 those from Arrakan have them black and grey in every 

 gradation. It is found in the Himalayas, extending 

 through Assam into Burmah." " Birds of India," Vol. 

 II., p. 40 (cf. The Ibis, 1903, p. 587). 



In Hume's "Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," 2nd 

 ed., pp. 45, 50, we read: "Mr. Gates tell us that he 

 ' found the nest of the Black-gorgeted Laughing-Thrush 

 in the Pegu Hills, on the 27th April, containing three 

 fresh eggs ; the bird was sitting. The nest was placed 

 in a bamboo-clump about 7ft. from the ground, made 

 outwardly of dead bamboo-leaves and coarse roots, lined 

 with finer roots and a few feathers ; inside diameter 6in., 

 depth 2in. Two eggs measured 1.04 by 0.83 and 0.86. 

 Colour, a beautiful clear blue.'* 



" A nest sent me from Sikhim, where it was found 

 in July, contained much larger eggs, and more in pro- 

 portion to the size of the bird. The nest I refer to was 

 placed in a clump of bamboos about 5ft. from the 

 ground. It was a tolerably compact, moderately deep, 

 saucer-shaped nest, between 6 and 7 inches in diameter^ 

 composed of dead bamboo-sheaths and leaves bound to- 

 g-ether with creepers and herbaceous stems, and thinly 

 lined with roots. It contained two eggs. These are 

 rather broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards one end ; 

 of a uniform pale greenish blue, and are fairly glossy 

 These eggs measured 1.33 and 1.30 in length, and 0.98 

 in breadth." 



Dr. Russ says that this is one of the very rarest birds 



* Mr. Hume thinks one of the ee?a rather small for the size of the 

 bird, and Mr. Gates observes :-" I fear I may have made a mistake 

 in identi ying the nest referred to." 



