56 CBA.TEEOPODIDJE.

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 3 J inches across and fully 2| 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.

Sir E. 0. Buck sent me the following note:—

" I found a nest of this species near JSTarkimda (about 30 miles
north of Simla) on the 26th June. It was placed on the branch
of a banj tree, some 8 feet from the ground, and contained two
eggs, half set. JSTest and eggs forwarded."

Dr. Jerdon says that Shore, as quoted by Gould in his * Century/
says that " it is by no means uncommon in Kumaon, where it
frequents shady ravines, building in hollows and their precipitous
sides, and making its nest of small sticks and grasses, the eggs
being five in number, of a sky-blue colour." But Shore, as the
showman would say, is, so far as eggs and nests are concerned, " a
fabulous writer," and the eggs are always more or less spotted, and
no nest that I ever saw of this species was composed of " small
sticks."

Mr. Blyth says :—" Mr. Hodgson figures a green egg, spotted
much like that of Turdus musicus, as that of the present species; "
but in all Hodgson's drawings this green represents a greenisJi
blue, as I have tested in dozens of cases.

Colonel G-. E. L. Marshall remarks :—" I found a nest of this
species on the 15th May at ISTynee Tal on the top of Ayar Pata, at an
elevation of about 7500 feet above the sea. The nest was a rather
deep cup, neatly made and placed about 5 feet from the ground
amongst the outer twigs of a thick barberry bush, the leaves of
which entirely concealed it. It was composed of a thick layer of
dead oak- and rhododendron-leaves, bound round outside with just
enough of grass-stems and moss to keep the leaves in place; it had
no lining of any description. The egg-cavity was 3| inches broad
by nearly 2| inches deep. The eggs, two in number, were blue,
with a few spots, streaks, and scrawls of brown tending to form a
zone at the larger end. They were large for the size of the bird.
The ground-colour was like that of the eggs of a Song-Thrush in
England.

" Several more nests found subsequently with eggs up to 4th
Jane were similar in structure, but placed in small oak trees from
5 to 15 or 18 feet from the ground.

" I found a nest of this species containing a single hard-set egg
on the 17th August; both parent-birds were by the nest; this is
unusually late, the chief breeding-month being June."

The eggs are very long ovals, of a delicate pale greenish-blue
ground-colour, with a few spots, streaks, and streaky blotches of a
very rich though slightly brownish red at the large end. These
eggs, though somewhat longer in shape and less freely marked, are
exactly of the same type as those of T. cacJiinnans and T. vanegatum.