Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/182

144 Habits. This Laughing-Thrush is found between 5,000 and 7,000 feet in the Bhamo Hills; it is said to have a "very fine, almost human whistle which can easily be imitated and by which it can be called up. It generally keeps to very dense forest."


 * Garrulax sannio Swinh., Ibis, 1867, p. 403 (China).
 * Dryonastes sannio. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 70.

Vernacular names. Shong-shay, Wo-frow (Kachin).

Description. Lores, cheeks, loaer part of the ear-coverts and a supercilium to the nape yellowish white; remainder of head, neck, chin and throat chestnut-brown; upper plumage and exposed parts of wings olive-brown; tail rufous-brown; centre of breast and abdomen pale ochraceous; sides of same rufous olive-brown; under tail-coverts bright ochraceous.

Colours of soft parts. Legs and feet pale brown with a faint purplish-fleshy tinge; claws darker; bill blackish; orbital skin pale fleshy-grev; iris dull brownish maroon, liver-brown, or light brown (Hume).

Measurements. Length about 250 to 260 mm.; wing 95 to 99 mm.; tail about 100 to 105 mm.; tarsus about 35 mm.; culmen about 18 to 19 mm.

Distribution. The extreme east of Cachar Hills, Manipur, Chin and Kachin Hills, Shan States into S.W. China, Fohkien (La Touche).

Nidification. The breeding season commences in February, but most eggs are laid in April and May and from then onwards to the middle of June. The nest is like that of ruficollis but with more grass in its construction, and is generally placed low down in brambles, bushes or thick grass, but in the Shan States it appears to select small trees and saplings for nesting purposes. The eggs vary from two to four in number and in colour from pure white to pale blue. They have the extremely hard, glossy texture of the eggs of the Rufous-necked Laughing-Thrush, from which they cannot be distinguished. Eighty eggs average 26·0 × 19·6 mm.

Habits. A very rare bird in Cachar and Manipur, this Laughing-Thrush becomes extremely common in the Kachin and Chin Hills between 3,000 and 5,500 feet. In its habits it is the same noisy, gregarious bird as is ruficollis, and, though a skulker in low jungle, is not shy or intolerant of observation. According to Harington they collect together in the evenines and are then often very noisy, but their notes are more complaining and less hilarious than those of the White-crested Laughing-Thrushes.