92 CRATEROPODID^!. 



and nape bright chestnut ; ear-coverts black, each feather mar- 

 gined with pale pinkish white ; lores, cheeks, chin, and upper 

 throat black, the two latter parts mottled with rufous ; the upper 

 back, the whole neck, and the lower throat and the breast rufous ; 

 each feather of the back and neck with a large black semicircular 

 spot, and those of the breast with a narrow black crescentic bar ; 

 lower back plain rufous ; rump ard upper tail-coverts olive-green ; 

 tail deep slaty, the outer webs suffused with golden yellow ; wing- 

 coverts olive-brown, the greater series tipped with ferruginous ; 

 winglet and primary-coverts yellow on the outer webs, ashy on the 

 inner ; tertiaries greenish, tipped with ashy blue, the outer webs 

 of the primaries and secondaries bright golden yellow, tinged with 

 red at the base of the secondaries and tipped with slaty blue ; 

 middle of the abdomen rufous ; remainder of the lower plumage 

 olivaceous brown. 



Bill dusky brown ; legs horny yellow-brown ; iris red (Jerdon). 



Length about 10; tail 4-6; wing 4-1; tarsus 1-55; bill from 

 gape 1-1. 



Distribution. The Himalayas from Nepal to the Daphla hills in 

 Assam, in which latter locality Godwin-Austen procured it on 

 Shengorh peak at 7000 feet. 



Habits, $c. Jerdon tells us that this species is very common about 

 Darjiling, where it may be often seen on the road, picking up 

 insects and grain among the dung of cattle, but rapidly hopping 

 off and diving into the nearest thicket on being approached. 



It breeds from April to June in scrubby jungle, building its 

 nest, which is composed of twigs and leaves, in bushes not many 

 feet above the ground. The eggs, three in number, are blue 

 marked with chocolate and measure 1*17 by -82. 



86. Trochalopterum melanostigma. The Chestnut-headed 

 Laughing- Thrush. 



Garrulax melanostigma, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xxiv, p. 268 (1855). 



Trochalopteron melanostigma (J5/y^), Blyth, Birds Burm.^. 108; 

 Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 464; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi, 

 p. 291 ; Hume, Cat. no. 415 ter ; Oates, B. B. i. p. 39 : Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. M. vii, p. 364. 



Coloration. Forehead, lores, chin, and cheeks black, the black of 

 the lores extending slightly over the eye ; a short supercilium, the 

 ear-coverts and the sides of the nape silvery grey streaked with 

 black ; crown of the head bright chestnut, contracting to a point 

 on the nape ; back, rump, lesser wing-coverts, and the upper tail- 

 coverts olive-brown, tinged with ochraceous on the back ; greater 

 wing-coverts olive-brown, tipped with ferruginous ; primary-coverts 

 black ; the outer webs of the primaries and secondaries and almost 

 the whole of the tertiaries olive-yellow ; tail olive-yellow ; throat 

 and upper breast ferruginous, extending in a paler form to the 

 breast and centre of the abdomen ; sides of the abdomen, flanks, 

 and under tail-coverts olive-grey. 



