Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/202

164 shaped nests of leaves, bracken, ferns and grass with a thin lining of roots and fine grass. Outwardly the nests measure about 6 inches in diameter by 3 inches in depth, and are placed low down in thick bushes or tangled undergrowth in forests. The eggs, two or three in number, are pale bright Thrush-egg blue-green in colour, dotted and blotched sparsely at the larger end with dark brownish red. In shape they are rather long ovals and in texture smooth and fine with but little gloss. Fourteen eggs average 29·2 × 21·3 mm.

Habits. This bird, and indeed most of this genus, is much less noisy than those of the genus Garrulax, and though sometimes found in small tiocks,is not so invariably gregarious, often wandering about in pairs. They keep up a continuous conversational chatter, interrupted with louder calls, some of which are quite mellow and sweet. They feed almost entirely on the ground itself or in the lower undergrowth in forests, and take to wing only when forced to do so. They are both insectivorous and eat small seeds.


 * Trochalopterum erythrolæma Hume, S. F., x, p. 153 (1881) (Matchi, S. Manipur); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 90.
 * Trochalopterum holerythrops Rippon, Bull. B. O. C, xiv, p. 83 (1904) (Chin Hills).

Vernacular names. None recorded.

Description. Differs from the last in having the lores and point of chin dusky brown; the chin and throat chestnut like the crown; the breast chestnut and the centre of the abdomen ferruginous. The forehead is tinged with grey.

Colours of soft parts as in the last bird.

Measurements. Length about 250 to 260 mm.; wing about 91 to 95 mm.; tail about 110 to 115 mm.; culmen 19 to 21 mm.; tarsus 27 mm.

Distribution. East Manipur and Chin Hills.

Nidification. The nest and eggs cannot be distinguished from those of the last bird. Twenty-two eggs average 29·9 × 20·5 mm..


 * Trochalopterum nigrimentum Oates, Blanf. & Oates, Avifauna B. I., i, p. 91 (1889) (Nepal) (ex Hodgson MS.).

Vernacular names. Tarphom-pho (Lepcha); Paniong (Bhutea).

Description. Similar to T. erythrocephalum, but the forehead is rufous with black shafts and the anterior portion of the crown deep grey, each feather black in the centre; the ear-coverts are