448 
LAEVIVOEA BEUNNEA. 
or branches when disturbed. It feeds after the manner of a Thrush, pecking quickly at insects on the ground 
or on rotten moss-covered timber j and such a great vai-iety does it devour, that Hodgson applied to it its 
generic name of Larvivora. From pecking in the soil its bill is frequently coated with earth like that 
of a Thrush. It is usually of silent habit ; but the male has a lively little song, composed of a few sibilant 
notes, which it suddenly warbles out from beneath the dense underwood in the forest. Hodgson remarks 
(correctly that it perches freely, but is usually on the ground j and Jerdon states that it has a low chuckling 
note like that of certain Stonechats. 
Nidification.—h\ti\e is known of the nesting of this Chat. Its home is probably in Cashmere and the 
Himalayas ; but some remain in the south of India during the breeding-season, and rear their youno’ in the 
Nilghiris. IHr. Davison, in writing to the author of ^ Nests and Eggs,^ alludes to two nests found in Alarch 
and Alay respectively, the first of which was in a “ hole in the trunk of a small tree about 5 feet from the 
ground, and was composed of moss mixed with dry leaves and twigs.*' This nest contained three young 
birds. An egg found in the latter nest was an elongated, slightly pyriform oval, with but little gloss, and 
the ground-colour of a pale greyish green, thickly mottled throughout and chiefly at the large end, where 
the markings were almost confluent, with pale brownish red. Dimensions 0-98 by b'67 inch. 
Genus TTJEDU8. 
Bill moderately long and straight, compressed towards the tip. Rictal bristles feeble, 
ings with the 1st or bastard primary equal to the primary-coverts, or slightly exceeding them ; 
the 4th or 5th the longest, and the 2nd longer than the secondaries. 'Jail and tarsus typical in 
their characters. 
