Numerous nests of this species subsequently sent me from Sikhim are all of the same type, all moderately deep cups composed entirely of creeper-tendrils, the cavity only being lined with fine black roots.  They appear from the specimens before me to be quite sui generis and unlike those of any of its congeners.  No grass, no dead leaves, no moss seems to be employed; nothing but the tendrils of some creeper.  The nests appear to be always placed at the fork, where three, four, or more shoots diverge, and to be generally more or less like inverted cones, measuring say 4 to 5 inches in height, and about the same in breadth at the top, while the cavities are about 3 inches in diameter and 1.5 to 2 in depth.  The nests appear to have been found at very varying heights from the ground from 5 to 15 feet, and at elevations of from 3000 to 5000 feet.  They appear to have contained three fresh or more or less incubated eggs.

The eggs were found in Sikhim on different dates between 25th May and 8th September.

Exceptional as the coloration of the eggs of this species may seem, there is no doubt that they are pure white.  The shell is thin and fragile, but has generally a decided gloss, and the eggs are typically elongated ovals, obtuse-ended, and more or less pyriform or cylindrical.  The eggs vary from 0.92 to 1.13 in length, and from 0.75 to 0.8 in breadth, but the average of eleven eggs is 1.06 by 0.77 nearly.

82.  Trochalopterum erythrocephalum (Vig.). The Red-headed Laughing-Thrush.

Trochalopteron erythrocephalum (Vig.), Jerd.  B. Ind. ii, p. 43; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 415.

From Kumaon westwards, at any rate as far as the valley of the Beas, the Red-headed Laughing-Thrush is, next to T. lineatum, the most common species of the genus.  It lays in May and June, at elevations of from 4000 to 7000 feet, building on low branches of trees, at a height of from 3 to 10 feet from, the ground.

The nests are composed chiefly of dead leaves bound round into a deep cup with delicate fronds of ferns and coarse and fine grass, the cavities being scantily lined with fine grass and moss-roots.  It is difficult by any description to convey an adequate idea of the beauty of some of these nests—­the deep red-brown of the withered ferns, the black of the grass- and moss-roots, the pale yellow of the broad flaggy grass, and the straw-yellow of some of the finer grass-stems, all blended together into an artistic wreath, in the centre of which the beautiful sky-blue and maroon-spotted eggs repose.  Externally the nests may average about 6 inches in diameter, but the egg-cavity is comparatively large and very regular, measuring about 31/2 inches across and fully 21/4 inches in depth.  Some nests of course are less regular and artistic in their appearance, but, as a rule, those of this species are particularly beautiful.

The eggs vary from two to four in number.