56 
composed of roots, intermingled with a few twigs and a little grass, and the cavity lined with roots | 
and slender petioles of the nelly-kai. M 
“Q This nest contained three partly-incubated eggs. The birds were very shy ; I visited the nest 
four times before I shot the male, and six before I shot the female. Directly I approached the nest 
the bird noiselessly dropped on to the ground and crept away through the brushwood. When 
disturbing them, I noticed that their call was low and sweet like that of the Blackbird when 
similarly disturbed. 
« «Оп the 9th 1 found a second nest, this time a 
was built in a loquat tree, in a fork about 22 feet from the ground, and was in every respect similar 
to the last except that a little moss had been used in its construction. "Тһе birds were very brave, 
defending their nest against one of those thieves of Crow-Pheasants, and it was the noise they made 
that attracted me to the nest. Again I was struck with the great similarity of their notes to those 
of the Blackbird when its nest is being robbed. This nest contained four perfectly fresh eggs, 
of which I took three, and then watched the old birds return to the nest, where they broke the one 
egg 1 had left to pieces. They have, however, begun another nest in a jack-tree close by. 
«Their song is never heard except in the early mornings and evenings, and mostly in 
thelatter. They go hopping about under the coffee-trees, and scratching up and turning over the 
bout 500 feet lower, at the foot of the hill. It 
leaves in search of food.” 
« Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says:—' It breeds in the forests of 
the western coast in August and September, building in small trees. The nest is composed 
of grass, leaves, twigs, &c., with the usual clay foundation which is found in almost all Thrushes' 
nests, and is lined with fine roots and hairs. The eggs are from three to four in number, of a pale 
greyish-blue colour, thickly speckled with minute reddish-brown spots. Тһе average dimensions are 
0:95 inch in length by 0:77 in breadth.’ 
“The eggs strike one as rather small for the size of the bird. In shape they are moderately 
broad ovals, a good deal pointed towards one end. The shell is fine and fairly glossy, and 
some eggs have a really fine gloss. 
“The general character of the egg is very Meruline. The ground-colour, very little of which in 
some eggs is visible, is a pale bluish or greenish white, and it is thickly freckled, blotched, 
and streaked with more or less brownish or purplish red. The markings are usually most 
dense at the large end, where they often form a bold confluent cap, and at this larger end a 
few lilac spots are commonly intermingled with the red markings. Some eggs have all the 
markings fine and very thickly spread over the whole surface. Others have them thick, bold, 
and blotchy all over the large end half, with only a few small spots scattered over the other half, 
and between these two types intermediate forms occur. 
“Тһе eggs measure from 0:9 to 1:08 in length, and from 0:71 to 0:79 in breadth, but the 
average of ten eggs is 0:99 by 0-75.” 
The White-throated Ground-Thrush is a forest bird and is very partial to bamboo-jungles. It 
feeds on the ground and generally perches low. Its principal food consists of insects—ants, 
cockroaches, beetles, &e.,—but it is also fond of stony fruit. It has rather a sweet song (Jerdon, 
Birds of India, i. p. 517). 
The adult male may be described*as follows :—Forehead, crown, and паре olive-chestnut ; 
the rest of the upper parts greyish-blue, each feather with a darker centre; lores white; eye-stripe 
obsolete; lesser wing-coverts greyish-blue; median wing-coverts greyish-blue, with concealed brown 
bases and broad white tips; greater wing-coverts greyish-blue, with dark brown inner webs; 
primary-coverts greyish-blue, with dark brown inner webs; tertials greyish-blue ; secondaries 
brown, margined with greyish-blue on the outer webs; primaries brown, margined more or 
2 
