grass and the fine stems of herbaceous plants, often intermingled with the bark of some fibrous plant, with a considerable number of dead leaves interwoven in the fabric, especially towards the base.  The cavity is neatly lined with fine grass-roots, or occasionally very fine grass.  The cavity varies from 3 inches to 3.5 in diameter, and from 2.25 inches to 2.75 in depth; the walls immediately surrounding the cavity are very compact, but the compact portion rarely exceeds from .75 to 1 inch in thickness, beyond which the loose ends of the material straggle more or less, so that the external diameter varies from 5.5 inches to nearly 10.

The normal number of eggs appears to me to be three, although Captain Beavan cites an instance of four being found.

Captain Hutton tells us (J.A.S.B. xvii.) that in the neighbourhood of Mussoorie “this bird is met with in pairs, sometimes in a family of four or five, and may be seen under every bush.  The nest is placed near the ground, in the midst of some thick low bush, or on the side of a bank amidst overhanging coarse grass, and not unfrequently in exposed and well-frequented places; it is loosely and rather slovenly constructed of coarse dry grasses and stalks externally, lined sometimes with fine grass, sometimes with fine roots.  The eggs are three in number, and in shape and size exceedingly variable, being sometimes of an ordinary oval, at others nearly round.”

From Almorah and Nynee Tal my friend Mr. Brooks writes to me “that this bird is common everywhere.  The nest is generally placed in a low tree or bush where the foliage is thick.  It is composed of grass, and lined with finer grass.  The eggs are three in number, one inch and one line long by nine lines broad.  They are of a light greenish blue, the tint being much the same as that of the eggs of Acridotheres tristis.  They lay from the commencement of May to the end of June.”

Colonel G.F.L.  Marshall tells me that “the Streaked Laughing-Thrush is very common at Mussoorie, where it is called by the public the Robin of India.  It breeds in July and August all about Landour.  The nest is cup-shaped, rather shallow, and loosely put together, made of grass and fibre with some moss and a few dead leaves twisted into it; it is placed in a low bush or else on the ground concealed among the grass-roots on the hill-side.  The eggs, three or four in number, are oval, rather large for the bird, and of a pure light-blue colour without spots.  I took eggs on the 26th and 28th July and on the 16th August.”

Sir E.C.  Buck writes:—­“At Mutianee, three marches north of Simla, I found on the 28th June a nest in a bush on the side of a scantily ‘jungled’ hill.  It was 2 feet from the ground, constructed of grass and stalks externally, and lined with fibrous roots.  It contained three fresh eggs.  The nest measured—­exterior diameter 6 inches, height exteriorly 4 inches; the interior diameter was 3 inches, and the depth of the cavity 2 inches.”