GABBTTLA.X. 53 



their nests were being examined, they came round in flocks to see 

 what was happening, chattering and making that peculiar laughing 

 note from which this genus takes its name. They are even gre- 

 garious in the breeding-season, and all the nests were found pretty 

 near each other about 6000 feet up." 



The nest sent me by Colonel Marshall is a broad, shallow cup, 

 or saucer as I should perhaps call it, some 6 inches in diameter, 

 with a central depression of at most 1*5 inch, below which the nest 

 is an inch or 1*5 in thickness. It is very loosely put together, and 

 composed interiorly of moderately fine dry twigs and roots, but 

 exteriorly it is completely wound round with slender green ivy- 

 twigs to which the leaves are attached. It has no lining or pre- 

 tence for such. 



Captain Cock says : — " The White-throated Laughing-Thrush 

 lays one of the most lovely eggs with which I am acquainted. The 

 nest is usually low, never more than 10 feet or so from the ground; 

 and of some fifteen or more nests that I have taken, all were con- 

 structed of long stalks of the ground-ivy, twisted round and round 

 into a wreath. The nest is not a deep cup ; if anything it is rather 

 shallow, but it is very wide. I always found these nests in thick 

 forest, at high elevations from 6000 to 7000 feet. The birds used 

 to sit close, and when put off their nests would commence their 

 outcries, and from all parts they would assemble and flit about 

 almost within reach of one's hand, making an awful noise, and in 

 the dark shade of the forest their white gorgets had quite a ghostly 

 look. The eggs are always three in number, of a beautiful shining 

 blue-green, sometimes of a very long oval type. I have found 

 the nests at Murree from the 3rd May to quite the end of 

 June." 



Colonel Q-. P. L. Marshall writing of this species says : — '* A 

 nest found at Nynee Tal on Ayar Pata, about 7000 feet above the 

 sea, contained two fresh eggs on the 31st May. The eggs were of 

 a rich deep greenish blue, unspotted. The nest was a scanty and 

 loosely-built structure, composed of roots and stems of grass and 

 creepers, cup-shaped, rather shallow, and lined with a curious black 

 creeper, very like coarse hair. The birds were gregarious even 

 though breeding, and were moving about the underwood in parties 

 of three to five. The nest was near the top of an oak-sapling in 

 a dense coppice, placed close against the stem in a bunch of leaves 

 at the top. The only difficulty in finding it lay in the scantiness of 

 the structure rather than in the concealment by the foliage. The 

 bird was on the nest and only moved off about 3 feet, sitting close 

 by and chattering indignantly during my inspection. They are 

 noisy birds, constantly on the move, and their notes, though rather 

 harsh, are very varied and quite conversational." 



The eggs are long, and pointed at the small end, to which they 

 sometimes taper much. They are very glossy, and vary from a 

 deep dull blue (the blue of a dark oil-paint, very much deeper than 

 that of any other of the Orateropodinre with which I am acquainted) 

 to a deep intense greenish blue. Possibly other as deeply coloured 



