TROCHALOPTERON VARIEGATUM. 



Variegated Trochalopteron. 



Cinclosoma variegatum, Vigors, P. Z. S., 1831, p. 56.— Gould, Cent. Himal. B., tab. xvi. 



Pterocyclus variegatus, Gray, Gen. B., i. p. 226.— Bp. Consp. i. p. 372.— Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co., 



i. p. 207.— Gray, Hand-1. B , i. p. 283. 

 Crateropus variegatus, Blyth, J. A. S. B., xii. p. 950. 



Garrulaoc variegatus, Blyth, J. A. S. B., xii. p. 950.— Id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B., p. 97. 

 Trochalopteron variegtum, Jerdon, B. Ind., i. p. 45, 



I am somewhat surprised that, of a species described and figured by me in my ' Century of Himalayan Birds ' 

 nearly forty years before, so very meagre an account should have been given as that by Dr. Jerdon in 1863 ; 

 but it is only since the publication of his 'Birds of India 5 that we have obtained any definite information 

 respecting the bird. The latter gentleman, in his supplementary notes to the above-mentioned book (Ibis, 

 1872, p. 305), writes: — "I first obtained this species in the valley of the Sutlej, and subsequently in various 

 other parts of the N.W. Himalayas up to Kashmir, where it is common in summer in forests at from 8000 

 to 10,000 feet of elevation." 



Respecting its nidification Capt. Cock and Capt. C. Marshall, in their joint paper on a collection of eggs 

 made at Murree, observe: — "The nidification of this Trochalopteron was apparently unknown before. We 

 found one nest, on the 15th of June, about 20 feet up a spruce fir, at the extremity of the bough. Nest 

 deep cup-shaped, solidly built of grass-roots and twigs. The bird sits close. Eggs light greenish blue, 

 sparingly spotted with pale purple, the same size as those of M. castanea" 



In the lately published 'Lahore to Yarkand,' Mr. Hume figures his new Trochalopteron simile, a closely 

 allied species ; and he remarks, in his article on the last-named bird : — " Nothing seems to have been recorded 

 as yet of the nidification of T. variegatum. They lay during the latter half of April, May, and June. The 

 nest is a pretty compact, rather shallow cup, composed exteriorly of coarse grass in which a few dead leaves 

 are intermingled ; it has no lining, but the interior of the nest is composed of rather finer and softer grass 

 than the exterior, and a good number of dry needle-like fir-leaves are used towards the interior. The nest 

 is from 5 to 8 inches in diameter exteriorly, and the cavity from 3 to 3'5 in diameter, and about 2 deep. 

 It is usually placed in some low, densely foliaged branch of a tree, at, say, from 3 to 8 feet from the 

 ground; but I recently obtained one placed in a thick tuft of grass growing at the roots of a young deodar, 

 not above 6 inches from the ground. They lay four or five eggs. The first egg that I obtained of this 

 species, sent me by Mr. G, C. Buck, C.S., and taken by himself, was a nearly perfect, rather long oval, and 

 precisely the same type of egg as those of T erythrocephalum and T. cac/iinnans, but considerably smaller 

 than the former. In fact, had Mr. Buck not taken the egg himself, I could scarcely have believed that it 

 belonged to this species. The ground-colour is pale, rather dingy greenish blue, and it is blotched, spotted, 

 and speckled — almost exclusively at the larger end, and even there not very thickly — with reddish brown. 

 The egg appeared to have but little gloss. 



" Other eggs subsequently obtained by myself were very similar, but slightly larger and rather more thickly 

 and boldly blotched, the majority of the markings being still at the large end. 



"The eggs vary from 1*07 to T15 inch in length, and from 0*76 to 082 in breadth." 



The following description is from a Nepalese bird. I have not at present a sufficiently large series to 

 decide on the specific value of T simile and T. Humei, which, though Dr. Jerdon fancies they may not be 

 distinct species, seem to me to be probably well-marked representative species. 



Above olivaceous brown, with a slight tinge of greenish; forehead washed with dull ochraceous; lores 

 and feathers round the eye extending on to the ear-coverts blackish; sides of face ochraceous, shading: into 

 buffy white on the sides of the neck ; throat black ; chest grey, slightly washed with ochraceous ; rest of 

 under surface light ochraceous, deepening into tawny rufous on the thighs and under tail-coverts- flanks 

 shaded with olivaceous grey ; under wing-coverts dull rufous ochre ; upper wing-coverts olivaceous brown, 

 the greater series washed with rufous, the outer ones black, forming a conspicuous wing-patch ; quills 

 blackish, externally grey, the primaries washed with orange on the outer web, all tipped with white at the 

 extremity of the latter; tail greyish, tipped with white, the outer feathers greenish yellow on the outer web 

 the two centre feathers black for about half their length, this colour disappearing gradually towards the base 

 of the outermost and absent on the two external rectrices. 



The sexes are of about the same dimensions, and are represented in the Plate of the size of life. 





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