TIMALIN^, 51 



426. Trochalopteron setafer, Hodgson. 



Cinclosoma, apud Hodgson, As. Res. XIX. — Garr. imbricatus, 

 Blyth, J. A. S., XII., 951*— Blyth, Cat. 500— Horsf., Cat. 299. 



The Bristly Laughing-thrush. 



Descr. — Above rufescent brown, darker on the head, and more 

 rufous on the wings and tail ; rump and flanks olive-green ; tail 

 rufescent, its feathers broadly subterminated with dull black, and 

 the extreme tip whitish; feathers of the crown, nape, and neck, 

 slightly margined with dull olive-green, and with shining black 

 shafts, and these feathers and those of the back slightly rigid to 

 the feel ; lores albescent ; beneath, rufescent olive-brown, more in- 

 clining to rufous than the upper parts, and the ear-coverts, sides of 

 neck, and all the under parts are more or less white-shafted, chiefly 

 towards the tips of the feathers ; the primaries are inconspicuously 

 margined with grey, and the secondaries with yellowish olive. 



Bill and feet brown. Length 8| inches ; wing 3 ; tail 4 ; bill at 

 front f ; tarsus 1|-. 



This curious species shows some affinities for Acantlioptila, 

 placed by Hodgson in the Malacocircus series, both by its more 

 lengthened bill and the spinous character of the plumage. It has 

 only as yet been sent from Nepal and Bootan, but it will probably 

 be found in Sikhim. Hodgson states that the stomach of this bird 

 is very thick, almost like a gizzard. 



No other species of this genus appear to be recorded, except 

 one from China, said by Blyth to be very Malacocircus-\ike. 

 Psophodes of Australia appears to belong to this family, near the 

 present series, and indeed has been placed in it by Bonaparte ; and 

 this Ornithologist also classes next to it the peculiar Malayan genus 

 Lophocitta, Vanga cristata of Griffith's Cuvier, which appears to 

 have some affinity for Thamnocataphus. The European Dysornitliia 

 infansta, usually placed among the Jays, perhaps belongs to this 

 family and section, but most of the African Crateropi come 

 nearer the Malacocircus group. 



* Blyth's imbricatus agrees with the description of setafer, but Hodgson appears 

 to have mixed up specimens of both species, for he sent specimens of the last bird 

 as setafer, as I am informed by Mr. Blyth. 



