The Himalayan Whistling Thrush. 
The Himalayan Whistling Thrush. 
Myiopliunus teinniinckii (Vitjoj-s). 
By H. GooDCHii.n. 
We are indebted to Mr. Goodchild for the following compilation (see 
plate in last issue). 
From E. W. Oates's edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian 
Birds," Vol. I., p. 120. 
" The Himalayan Whistling Thrush breeds throughout the Himalayas 
from Assam to Afghanistan, in shady ravines and wooded glens, as a rule, 
from an elevation of 2,000 to 5,C00 feet, but, at times, especially far into the 
interior of the hills, up to even 10,000 feet. 
" It lays during the last week of April, May and June. The number 
of eggs varies from three to five. 
The nest is almost invariably placed in the closest proximity to some 
mountain-stream, on the rocks and boulders of which the male so loves to 
warble; sometimes on a mossy bank; sometimes in some rocky crevice hidden 
amongst drooping maiden-hair; sometimes on some stream-encircled slab, ex- 
posed to view from all sides, and not unfrequently curtained in by babbling 
waters of some little waterfall behind which it has been constructed. The 
nest is always admirably adajited to surrounding conditions. Safety is always 
sought either in inaccessiljility or concealment. Built on a rock in t'.ie midst 
of a roaring torrent, not the smallest attempt at concealment is made; the 
nest lies open to the gaze of every living thing, and the materials are not even 
so chosen as to harmonise with the colour of the site. But if an easily access- 
ible sloping mossy bank, ever bejewelled with the spray of some little cascade, 
be the spot selected, the nest is so worked into and coated with moss as to be 
absolutely invisible if looked <at from below, and the place usually so chosen 
that it cannot well be looked at, at all closely from above". Mr. R. 
Thomson writes "In Kumaon they bleed from IMay to July, along all the 
hill-streams, from 1,500 up to about 4,500. In the cold eeason they decend 
quite to the plains— I mean the Sub-Himalayan plains. The nest is gener- 
ally more or less circular, 5 or 6 inches in diameter, composed of moss and 
mud clinging to the roots of small aquatic plants or of the moss, and lined 
with fine roots and sometimes hair. A deep well- watered glen is usually 
chosen, and the nest is placed in some cleft or between the ledges of some 
rock, often immediately overhanging some deep gloomy pool. " 
Captain Hutton states " the bird is common, except during the breed- 
ing season, at all elevations up to the snows, and in the winter it extends its 
range down into the Doon. In the breeding season it is found chiefly in the 
glens, in the retired depths of which it constructs its nest ; it never, like the 
Thrushes and Geocicliinf, buildi^ in trees or bushes, but selects some high 
lowering, and almost maccessible rock, forming the side of a deep glen, on 
the projecting ledges of which, or in the holes from which small boulders 
have fallen, it constructs its nest, and where, un'ess when assailed by man, 
it rears its young in safety, secure alike from the howling blast and the 
attack of wild animals. It is known to the natives by the name of " Kallet,' 
and to the Europeans as the " Hill Blackbird." The situation in which the 
