56 



5,000 feet, but at times, especially far into the interior of the hills, up to even 

 10,000 feet. They lay during the last week of April and during May and 

 June. Eggs 35. The nest, according to the same writer, is almost invariably 

 placed in the closest proximity to some mountain stream, on the rocks and 

 boulders of which, the male so loves to warble, and sometimes on a mossy 

 bank ; sometimes in some rocky crevice hidden amongst drooping maiden 

 hair. Safety is always the aim of the parent bird in choosing the site for the 

 nest. Hume records Darjeeling as a place where nests were taken, also 

 Kumaon, Mussoorie and Dhurrumsala. Eggs, French grey, greyish white or 

 pale greenish, speckled or freckled with minute pink, pale purplish pink or 

 pinkish brown specks. In length they vary from 1*24 to 1*55 inch and in 

 breadth from 0*95 to ri inch. (Hume.) 



482. MyiOphoneUS Eugenii, Hume, Sir. F. 1873, p. 475 ; id. and 



Oales, Sir. F. 1874, p. 106; id. and JDav., Str. F. 1878, vol. i. p. 236 ; id., Sir. 

 F. 1879, p. 93; Oales, B. Brit. JBurm. p. 17. The BURMESE WHISTLING- 

 THRUSH. 



Like M. Temminckii, but without the white spots at the tips of the wing 

 coverts, which are glistening dull blue like the rest of the upper surface. Bill 

 orange yellow ; region of the nostrils and portion of the culmen dark brown ; 

 iris umber brown ; eyelids straw yellow ; legs black. 



Length. 13 to 13-5 inches; culmen 1*4; wings 67 ; tail 4-9 ; tarsus, 2*1. 



Hob. Hills of Tenasserim and Pegu to the eastward of the Irrawaddy rivers 

 extending to the Karen hills, where M. Temminckii is also found. Gates says it 

 is found in the whole of Pegu, east of the Irrawaddy, wherever there are rocky 

 nullahs. Captain Wardlaw-Ramsay observed it in the Karen hills. Accord- 

 ing to Davison, he adds, it is confined in Tenasserim to the hills and isolated 

 limestone rocks of the northern and central portions only. Captain Bingham 

 records it from the Thoungyeen Valley, and it is said to occur also in Siam. 

 It is said by Gates to be abundant in rocky hill streams, going about singly 

 or in couples, and to feed largely on land-shells, which it breaks to pieces 

 against rocks in the nullah. He quotes Captain Bingham's account of the 

 nesting of this beautiful thrush, which is to the effect that " on a frail and tot- 

 tering foundation, as collected pieces of wood, leaves and other floating 

 matter jammed in by force of water between a dam formed by a small tree 

 which had drifted down a stream, and rising some six inches above the water, was 

 placed a round, solid nest about nine inches in diameter, made of green moss 

 and lined with fine black roots and fibres, in which lay four fresh eggs of a 

 pale stone colour, sparsely spotted, especially at the larger end, with minute 

 specks of reddish brown." Captain Bingham saw a pair of the birds and one of 

 the parents sit on the eggs in the nest. In shape the eggs are said to be 

 some what like those of a Pitta, and measure 2-45 x 1*02, 1*50 x 1*02, 1-46 x 

 roi, and 1-50 x roi. 



