TROCHALOPTERON MELANOSTIGMA. 







Tickell's Laughing Thrush. 



Trochalopteron melanostigma, Blyth, Journ, As. Soc. Beng. xxiv. p. 268 (1855). — Blyth & Walden, Birds of 

 Burmah, p. 108, no. 316 (1875). — Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 464.— Hume & Davison, Stray 

 Feathers, 1878, vol. i. p. 291.— Hume, Stray Feathers, 1879, p. 97, 



Pterocyclus melanostigmus, Gray, Hand-list of Birds, i. p. 283. no. 4192 (1869). 



This beautiful species of Laughing Thrush was discovered by the late Colonel Tickell in the mountains 

 of Tenasserim, where he found it up to the vast wall-like crags of Mouleyit at a height of 7500 feet. It 

 has also been obtained by Mr. Davison in the same country; and Captain Wardlaw Ramsay met with it in 

 Karen-nee at a height of 5000 feet, where he found it very abundant. He writes : — " A native bird-catcher 

 snared more than a dozen for me one day in a few hours, besides specimens of Tardus sibiricus, T. pallidas, 

 Oreocincla mollissima, and Sibia picaoides, using as his bait the larvae of some insect. In some specimens the 

 ferruginous-chestnut colour of the throat and breast is continued over the whole of the lower surface." 



Mr. Davison's note on the species in Tenasserim is as follows : — 



" This species, except perhaps in the nesting-season, is always found in small parties of six or eight. 

 They feed chiefly on the ground, keeping much in the brushwood, rarely flying into trees unless pressed by 

 dogs; neither a very noisy nor very silent bird, uttering from time to time its fine whistling call, which 

 greatly resembles that of the species (T. erythrocephalain) that we get about Simla. By no means a shy 

 bird, and rather common on the hills from 3000 feet and upwards (not seen in the plains), and especially 

 so about Mooleyit. It keeps to the forest or its outskirts as a rule; but it sometimes at Mooleyit ventures 

 into the detached clumps of briars and scrub that stud the grassy slopes near the summit. All the 

 specimens I examined had fed exclusively on insects." 



The present species is very closely allied to T. ruficapillum 9 like which species it has the cap chestnut as 

 well as the throat; but it differs from that bird in the following characters — the black primary-coverts 

 (which form a wing-patch), the black chin, the uniform hind neck and mantle — as well as in having the 

 ear-coverts ashy, streaked with black and slightly washed with rufous. 



The following excellent description has been given in ' Stray Feathers ' by Mr. Hume : — 



"Males. Length 104 to 10'62; expanse 12*0 to 13*0; tail from vent 4*4 to 4*5; wing 4'0 to 4*2; 

 tarsus 1"5 to 1*6; bill from gape 1*2; weight 2*75 to 3*25 oz. 



"Females. Length 9*85 to 10*7; expanse 11*62; tail from vent 4*0 to 4*5; wing 3*8 to 4*5; tarsus 

 1*45 to 1*65 ; bill from gape 1*2; weight 2*75 oz. 



" Legs, feet, and claws very pale brown to reddish brown ; bill black ; irides brown or hazel-nut brown. 



"The lores and point of the forehead black; the rest of the forehead, crown, occiput, and a sort of 

 tail to the occiput descending onto the nape, bright ferruginous chestnut to deep ferruginous, almost 

 maroon chestnut ; cheeks, ear-coverts, sides of the occiput, and upper part of sides of the nape delicate 

 silvery grey, regularly striated longitudinally with dusky; feathers at the base of the lower mandible and 

 chin black, the former sometimes slightly streaked silvery; the black of the chin and of the feathers 

 on the base of the lower mandible shading into an intense ferruginous or ferruginous-red on the throat, 

 whence this colour extends, somewhat diluted, over the rest of the front of the neck. Most generally only 

 a trace of this extends onto the breast, but the birds are very variable in this respect, and in some 

 specimens this ferruginous, though less ruddy and less intense in character, spreads over the whole of the 

 upper breast, the middle part of the lower breast, and upper abdomen, and in one specimen before me 

 right down to the vent. Normally, however, the breast, abdomen, sides, flanks, vent, lower tail-coverts, 

 tibial plumes are all a clear olive-brown or olive, the sides a little shaded with grey, and the middle of the 

 breast and its sides a little diffused with a paler, duller, and less ferruginous tinge of the colour of the lower 

 neck. Of course, where the ruddy or ferruginous tinge is more extended, the amount of the olive is 

 proportionately contracted. The sides of the neck below the silvery striated face-patch, the back of the 

 neck, and upper back are olive, sometimes greener, sometimes yellower, and sometimes again browner or 

 greyer- the rest of the back, scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts are usually the same colour, but 

 darker in shade and less pure in tint. The primary greater coverts are velvet-black, forming a conspicuous 

 patch on the wing ; the earlier secondary greater coverts are red, varying from bright ferruginous chestnut 

 to an almost orange ferruginous ; the rest of the coverts are olive ; the quills are hair-brown ; their outer 

 webs and the greater part of the visible portion of both webs of the tertiaries bright golden olive, in some, 



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