TEOOHALOPTERTJM. 59 



Dr. Jerdon says : — " A nest and eggs said to be of this bird were 

 brought to me at Darjeeling ; the nest made of roots and grass, and 

 the eggs, three in number, pale blue, with a few narrow and wavy- 

 dusky streaks." 



The eggs are singularly lovely. In shape they are elongated 

 ovals, generally very obtuse at both ends, and many of them exhi- 

 biting cylindrical or pyriform tendencies. The shell is very fine 

 and fairly glossy, and the ground-colour is a most beautiful clear 

 pale sea-green in some, greenish blue in others. The character of 

 the markings is more that of the Buntings than of this family. 

 There are a few strongly marked deep maroon, generally more or 

 less angular, spots or dashes, principally about the large end, and 

 there are a few spots and tiny clouds of pale soft purple, and then 

 there are an infinite variety of hair-line hieroglyphics, twisted and 

 scrawled in brownish or reddish purple, about the egg. The mark- 

 ings are nowhere as a rule crowded, and towards the small end are 

 usually sparse and occasionally wholly wanting. In some eggs a 

 bad pen seems to have been used to scribble the pattern, and every 

 here and there instead of a fine hair-line there is a coarse thick 

 one. 



The eggs are pretty constant in size and colour, but here and 

 there an abnormally pale specimen, in which the green has almost 

 entirely disappeared, is met with. In length they vary from 0-98 

 to 1"15, and in breadth from 0-7 to 0-82, but the average of 

 thirty-one eggs is 1-04 by - 74. 



88. Trochalopterum subunicolor, Hodgs. The Plain-coloured 



Laughing- Thrush. 



Trochalopteron subunicolor, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 44 ; Hume, 

 Hough Draft N. Sf E. no. 417. 



The Olivaceous or Plain-coloured Laughing-Thrush breeds, 

 according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, in the central region of Nepal 

 from April to June. It nests in open forests and groves, building 

 its nest on some low branch of a tree, 2 or 3 feet from the ground, 

 between a number of twigs. The nest is large and cup-shaped : 

 one measured externally 5-5 inches in diameter and 3-38 in height ; 

 internally 2-75 deep and 3-12 in diameter. The nest is composed 

 externally of grass and mosses lined with soft bamboo-leaves. 

 Three or four eggs are laid, unspotted greenish blue. One is 

 figured as 1-07 by 0-7. 



90. Trochalopterum variegatum (Vig.). The Eastern 

 Variegated Laughing-Thrush. 



Trochalopteron variegatum (Vig.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 45; Hume, 

 Bough Draft N. fy E. no. 418 (part). 



The Eastern Variegated Laughing-Thrush breeds only at eleva- 



