TROCHA.LOPTEKTJM:, 57

The texture of the shell is very fine and compact, and they have a
slight gloss. In some eggs the spottings are more numerous, and,
besides the primary markings already mentioned, a few purple spots
and blotches, mostly very pale, are intermingled with the darker
markings. In almost all the eggs that I have seen the markings
were absolutely confined to the larger end.

In length the eggs vary from 1-15 to 1*22, and in breadth from
0-8 to 0-86; but the average is about 1-2 by 0-82.

85. Trochalopterum nigrimentum, Ilodgs. The Western
Yellow-winf/ed Laughing-Thrush.

Trochalopteron ckrysopterum (Gould), apud Jerd. B* Ind. ii} p. 43 ;
Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no, 4l6.

The Western Yellow-winged Laughing-Thrush breeds, so far as
is yet known, only in Nepal, Sikhim, and Bhootau, from all which
localities we have quite young birds, but no eggs.

Dr. Jerdon says :—" The eggs are greenish blue, in a nest neatly
made with roots and moss." This, of course, is wrong, as the eggs
are now well known to be spotted.

From Sikhim, Mr. G-ammie writes:—"The Yellow-winged
Laughing-Thrush breeds from April to June at elevations from
5500 feet upwards. It prefers scrubby jungle, and places its nest
in bushes about six feet or so from the ground. It is a broad, cup-
shaped structure, neatly and strongly made of fine twigs and dry
grass-leaves, lined with roots and with a few strings of green moss
wound round the outside. Externally, it measures about 6 inches
wide, and 4| deep ; internally 3£ by 2|.

" The eggs are usually three in number."

Six nests of this species found between the 4th May and 2nd
July in Native and British Sikhirn were sent me by Mr. Mandelli.
They were placed in small trees or dense bushes at heights of from

3 to 8 feet, and contained in some cases two, and in others three
fresh or fully incubated eggs, so that sometimes the bird only lays
two eggs. Three nests were also sent me by Mr. Gammie, taken
in the neighbourhood of the Sikhim Cinchona-Plantations. All are
precisely of the same type, all constructed with the same materials,
but owing to the different proportions in which these are used
some of the nests at first sight seem to differ widely from others.
Some also are a good deal bigger than others, but all are massive, deep
cups, varying from 5-25 to 6*5 inches in diameter, and from 3 to fully

4 in height externally; the cavities vary from 3 to 3*5 in diameter,
and from 2 to 2*5 in depth. The body of the nests is composed of
grass; the cavity is lined first with dry leaves, and then thickly or
thinly with black fibrous roots. Externally the nest is more or less
bound together by creepers and stems of herbaceous plants. Some-
times only a few strings of moss and a few sprays of Selaginella are
to be seen on the outside of the nest; while, on the other hand, in
some nests the entire outer surface is completely covered over with
green moss, not only on the sides, but on the upper margin, so as