TEOCHAlOPTEETrM. 57 



The texture of the shell is very fine and compact, and they have a 

 slight gloss. In some eggs the spottings are more numerous, and, 

 besides the primary markings already mentioned, a few purple spots 

 and blotches, mostly very pale, are intermingled with the darker 

 markings. In almost all the eggs that I have seen the markings 

 were absolutely confined to the larger end. 



In length the eggs vary from 1-15 to 1-22, and in breadth from 

 0-8 to 0-86 ; but the average is about 1-2 by 0-82. 



85. Trochalopterum nigrimentum, Hodgs. The Western 

 Yellow-winged Laughing-Thrush. 



Trochalopteron chrysopterum (Gould), apud Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 43 ; 

 Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 416. 



The "Western Yellow-winged Laughing-Thrush breeds, so far as 

 is yet known, only in Nepal, Sikhim, and Bhootan, from all which 

 localities we have quite young birds, but no eggs. 



Dr. Jerdon says : — ■" The eggs are greenish blue, in a nest neatly 

 made with roots and moss." This, of course, is wrong, as the eggs 

 are now well known to be spotted. 



Prom Sikhim, Mr. Gammie writes: — "The Yellow-winged 

 Laughing-Thrush breeds from April to June at elevations from 

 5500 feet upwards. It prefers scrubby jungle, and places its nest 

 in bushes about six feet or so from the ground. It is a broad, cup- 

 shaped structure, neatly and strongly made of fine twigs and dry 

 grass-leaves, lined with roots and with a few strings of green moss 

 wound round the outside. Externally, it measures about 6 inches 

 wide, and 4| deep ; internally 3£ by 2\. 



" The eggs are usually three in number." 



Six nests of this species found between the 4th May and 2nd 

 July in Native and British Sikhim were sent me by Mr. Mandelli. 

 They were placed in small trees or dense bushes at heights of from 



3 to 8 feet, and contained in some cases two, and in others three 

 fresh or fully incubated eggs, so that sometimes the bird only lays 

 two eggs. Three nests were also sent me by Mr. Gammie, taken 

 in the neighbourhood of the Sikhim Cinchona-Plantations. All are 

 precisely of the same type, all constructed with the same materials, 

 but owing to the different proportions in which these are used 

 some of the nests at first sight seem to differ widely from others. 

 Some also are a good deal bigger than others, but all are massive, deep 

 cups, varying from 5-25 to 6-5 inches in diameter, and from 3 to fully 



4 in height externally ; the cavities vary from 3 to 3 - 5 in diameter, 

 and from 2 to 2-5 in depth. The body of the nests is composed of 

 grass ; the cavity is lined first with dry leaves, and then thickly or 

 thinly with black fibrous roots. Externally the nest is more or less 

 bound together by creepers and stems of herbaceous plants. Some- 

 times only a few strings of moss and a few sprays of Selaginella are 

 to be seen on the outside of the nest ; while, on the other hand, in 

 some nests the entire outer surface is completely covered over with 

 green moss, not only on the sides, but on the upper margin, so as 



