The eggs vary in length from 0.92 to 1.08, and in breadth from 0.74 to 0.8, but the average of twenty eggs measured was 1.0 by 0.76.

96.  Trochalopterum fairbanki, Blanf. The Palni Laughing-Thrush.

Trochalopterum fairbanki, Blanf., Hume, Cat. no. 423 bis.

The Rev. S.B.  Fairbank, the discoverer of this species, found its nest at Kodai Kanal, in the Palni Hills, in May.  The nest was placed in the crotch of a tree, at about 10 feet from the ground, and at an elevation of nearly 6500 feet above the level of the sea.  The eggs are moderately elongated ovals, with a fine, fairly glossy shell.  The ground is pale greenish blue or bluish green; the markings are spots, small blotches, hair-lines, and hieroglyphic-like scrawls, rather thinly scattered about the surface, and varying in colour through several shades of brownish and reddish purple to bright claret-colour.

The only egg I have measures 1 inch in length by 0.8 inch in breadth.

99.  Trochalopterum lineatum (Vig.). The Himalayan Streaked Laughing-Thrush.

Trochalopteron lineatum (Vig.), Jerd.  B. Ind. ii, p. 50; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 425[A].

[Footnote A:  I omit the note on T. imbricatum in the ‘Rough Draft,’ because, as I have shown in the ‘Birds of India,’ this bird was unknown to Hodgson, and his note refers to T. lineatum.  Sufficient is now known about the nidification of this latter to render the insertion of Hodgson’s note unnecessary.—­ED.]

Next to the Common House-Sparrow, the Himalayan Streaked Laughing-Thrush is perhaps the most familiar bird about our houses at all the hill-stations of the Himalayas westward of Nepal and throughout the lower ranges on which these stations are situated; this species breeds at elevations of from 5000 to 8000 feet.

It lays from the end of April to the beginning of September, and very possibly occasionally even earlier and later.  I took a nest on the 29th April near Mussoorie; Mr. Brooks obtained eggs in May and June at Almorah; Colonel G.F.L.  Marshall at Mussoorie in July and August; and Colonel C.H.T.  Marshall at Murree from May to the end of July.  I again took them in July and August near Simla, and Captain Beavan found them as late as the 6th of September near the same station.

So far as my own experience goes, the nests are always placed in very thick bushes or in low thick branches of some tree, the Deodar appearing to be a great favourite.  Those I found averaged about 4 feet from the ground, but I took a single one in a Deodar tree fully 8 feet up.  The bird, as a rule, conceals its nest so well that, though a loose and, for the size of the architect, a large structure, it is difficult to find, even when one closely examines the bush in which it is.  The nest is nearly circular, with a deep cup-like cavity in the centre, reminding one much of that of Crateropus canorus, and is constructed of dry