Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/217

Rh above it. The lores and whole crown to nape are dusky brown; the chin is nearly white and the centre of the abdomen also is white.

Colours of soft parts. Iris dark red; bill black; legs dusky (Bourdillon).

Measurements about the same as fairbanki.

Distribution. North Travancore; there are specimens in the British Museum from Chinnipanni, the Patnas, Mynall and the Tinnevally boundary, and Mr. J. Stewart obtained it at the Autchincoil Gap on the Ghats.

Nidification. Mr. J. Stewart appears to be the only collector who has seen the nest of this bird. He describes it as just like most nests of cachinnans; it was taken at about 3,000 feet. The eggs are more Thrush-like than are those of any other of the South Indian Laughing-Thrushes, and might be matched in colour by many eggs of Merula simillima. The ground-colour is a very pale blue-green, and the markings consist of ratlier numerous blotches, smears and spots of reddish brown, mostly on the larger end, where in one egg they form a dense ring. The three eggs average about 25·5 × 19·1 mm. I expect these eggs are somewhat abnormal in coloration.

Habits. Those of the preceding bird.


 * Trochalopteron virgatum Godw.-Aust., P. Z. S., 1874, p. 46 (Razami, Naga Hills); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 100.

Vernacular names. Dao-phéré (Cachari).

Description. Point of the forehead and a long supercilium extending to the nape white; lores ferruginous; cheeks, lower part of ear-coverts and under the eye fulvous-white; upper part of ear-coverts ferruginous, with pale shaft-streaks; crown, nape, mantle, lesser wing-coverts and sides of the neck reddish brown, with very white shafts; lower back, scapulars, rump and upper tail-coverts ashy-brown, with white shafts; tail olive-brown, distinctly cross-rayed; the outer feathers tipped with white; greater wing-coverts chestnut, with white shafts and tips; primary-coverts pale rufous, with white shafts and brown tips; winglet deep ashy, with the outer webs white along the shafts; wings ashy; the middle feathers washed with chestnut and the inner secondaries edged with paler ashy; chin and throat deep chestnut, shading off into yellowish-buff on the remainder of the lower plumage, all the feathers with white shafts.

Colours of soft parts. Legs and feet pale horny or fleshy, the soles paler and more yellow; bill dark brown, paler at the gape; iris hazel-brown; orbital skin dusky plumbeous.

Measurements. Length about 250 mm.; wing 85 to 89 mm.;