As a rule, the nest is placed on the ground, in some thick clump of dry fern or coarse grass, amongst dead leaves and moss, but at times I have seen it placed in a thick bush 2 or 3 feet from the ground.  It is very common near Kotegurh and below Narkunda, where we found nearly a dozen nests, almost all, however, containing young ones.  Typically the nest is domed, and is loosely constructed of the materials at hand—­coarse grass, dry fern, dead leaves, moss-roots, and the like, some 6 or 7 inches in diameter and 5 or 6 inches high, with a broad entrance on one side, a good deal above the middle.  In some cases, however, where a dense bunch of grass or fern completely curves over the spot selected for the nest, the latter is a mere broad, shallow saucer.  There is no regular lining to the nests, but a good many fine roots are at times incorporated in the interior of the cavity.  All the nests that I have seen were placed near the edges of clumps of brushwood or scrubby jungle.

I ought here to mention that I am by no means certain that the Nepalese and Sikhim, in fact the eastern race of this species (P. ferrugilatus Hodgs.), will not have to be separated from the more western P. erythrogenys of Gould.  Long ago Blyth remarked (’Journal Asiatic Society,’ 1845, p. 598) that “there seems to be two marked varieties of P. erythrogenys, one having white under-parts, with merely faint traces of darker spots, the other with the throat and breast densely mottled with greenish olive,” or, as I should call it, dingy olive-grey.  This is perfectly true, and, as far as I can make out, the latter variety is not one of sex or age, but is local and confined to Kumaon (where the other form also occurs) and the hills eastward of this province.  My own remarks above given refer to the true P. erythrogenys, and so do Hutton’s; but Hodgson’s and Mr. Gammie’s birds both appear to have been, and the latter’s certainly were, grey-throated examples.  The eggs are undistinguishable, as, indeed, though they vary somewhat in shape and size, are those of most of the Pomatorhini.

Captain Hutton says that this species is “common from 3500 feet up to 10,000 or 12,000 feet, always in pairs, turning up the dead leaves on copsewood covered banks, uttering a loud whistle, answering and calling each other.  It breeds in April, constructing its nest on the ground of coarse dry grasses and leaf-stalks of walnut-trees, and is covered with a dome-shaped roof, so nicely blended with the fallen leaves and withered grasses, among which it is placed, as to be almost undistinguishable from them.  The eggs are three in number, and pure white; diameter 1.12 by 0.81 inches, of an ordinary oval shape.  When disturbed, the bird sprung along the ground with long bounding hops, so quickly that, from its motions and the appearance of the nest, I was led to believe it a species of rat.  The nest is placed in a slight hollow, probably formed by the bird itself.”