A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF NEPAL. 289 



In these four specimens the throat and breast are rather deep 

 cinereous ; all have a short blackish mandibular stripe, and in 

 all the rusty colour tends to meet across the breast ; the dark 

 colour of the throat and breast is not due to age ; it is quite as 

 well marked in young- birds as in adults. 



This species is more common than ruficollis on the hills 

 round the Nepal Valley. It frequents thick brush-wood on the 

 slopes of the hills, but seems to avoid tree forest ; occasionally 

 it may be seen peeping about from the middle of a bush, and 

 on being disturbed it quickly drops to the ground and hops off 

 to other shelter. It is generally found in pairs, but is social 

 in winter ; the alarm note consists of a single loudish ' c/mck' 

 repeated at short intervals, but the usual cry uttered is a com- 

 pound one : one bird says ' qiioick^ and its companion imme- 

 diately adds, ' tckur, tchur, tckur, tcliur^ and so on da capo. It 

 lays in May and June ; two nests, taken on the 30th May and 

 6th June, were large loosely-made pads, not domed, and with 

 the egg cavity saucer-shaped each nest contained three pure 

 white eggs. 



407.— Garrulax leucolophus, Hardw, 



Male, Nimhoatar, December. — Length, 12 ; expanse, 16'1 ; 

 wing, 5"33 ; tail, 5*5 ; tarsus, 1'8 ; bill from gape, 1*35 ; bill at 

 front, I'l ; closed wings short of tail, 3"5. 



Bill horny black ; irides red brown ; orbital skin slaty ; feet 

 livid plumbeous ; claws dusky grey ; the tail is distinctly 

 barred. 



This Laughing Thrush is found in the Nepal Valley, in sum- 

 mer, in the forests at the foot of the hills, at an elevation not 

 exceeding, I think, about 5,000 feet. It was never met with 

 about the valley in winter, but was found at that season in the 

 Nawakot district, and was exceedingly common in the lower 

 hills, from below Sisagarhi to the Hetoura Dun. No one who 

 has chanced to come across a flock of this species in the jungle 

 will ever forget the startling shout of loud discordant laughter 

 with which his approach is greeted by them ; nor the peculiarly 

 noiseless and rapid manner in which the birds flit away through 

 the thicket, chattering and grumbling at the cause of their 

 alarm. 



411.— Garrulax albogularis, Gould, 



Four males, May and June. — Length, 11-2 to 11'75 ; expanse, 

 15-4 to 15-7 ; wing, 5-1 to 5-2 ; tail, 5-25 to 5*5; tarsus, 1-6 to 

 1-65 ; bill from gape, 1-2 to 1-24 ; bill at front, 0*83 to 0'85 ; 

 closed wings short of tail, 3*0 to 3" 3. 



