Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/219

Rh coverts plain ashy; tail marked with rufous, cross-rayed, with a subterminal black band and grey tips: wings chiefly rufous on the outer webs, the inner secondaries edged with grey; lores and a ring round the eye mingled white and grey; cheeks, ear-coverts and an indistinct supercilium castaneous; chin, throat, breast and upper abdomen chestnut, all the feathers with ashy margins and those of the breast with glistening white shafts; lower abdomen, flanks and under tail-coverts ashy-brown.

Colours of soft parts. Bill dusky, the base of the lower mandible greyish or brownish-horny; iris brown or reddish brown; feet fleshy-brown, claws livid horny.

Measurements. Length about 200 to 210 mm.; wing 74 to 77 mm.; tail about 90 mm.; tarsus about 27 mm.; culmen 18·5 to 20·8 mm.

Distribution. Nepal, Sikkim.

Nidification and Habits similar to those of the better known form, next described. Eggs taken in Native Sikkim and Darjeeliug average about 26·0 × 18·8 mm.


 * Ianthocinda lineatum griseicentior Hartert, Vög. Pal., i, p. 636 (1910) (Simla).

Vernacular names. None recorded.

Description. A paler bird than the preceding, both above and below, with much broader grey edges to the feathers of the underparts.

Colours of soft parts and Measurements as in T l. lineatum.

Distribution. Garhwal, Kumaon, Simla and S. Kashmir.

Nidification. The Simla Streaked Laughing-Thrush breeds in great numbers throughout its range between 5,000 and 8,000 feet. The breeding season is very extended and eggs have been taken in every month from March to September, though probably those laid in July to September are second broods. The nests are made of dry grass, leaves, small pliant twigs and stems of plants, scraps of bracken and roots and they are lined with either roots or grass stems, generally the latter. They are bulky nests measurhig roughly anything from 6″ to 10″ in outward diameter by some 3″ to 5″ in depth, the egg-cavity being about 3″ × 2½″ or rather more. It is placed either in some thick bush in undergrowth or on a branch low down in a big tree, the Deodar being a special favourite and, though so big a nest, is always well concealed. The normal full clutch of eggs is three, rarely four and not seldom two only. They are unspotted blue-green in colour and have a smooth satiny surface with but little gloss. 100 eggs average 25·6 × 18·4 mm.