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 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."
The late Captain Beavan tells us that "on the 16th of August, 1866, I
found a nest in the garden, in a rose-bush, with four pale blue eggs
in it, like those of _Acridotheres tristis_. The nest is a large
structure, firmly built of dry twigs, bark, sticks, ferns, and roots.
Another nest, with three eggs only, was found in a thick clump of
everlasting peas close to the ground on the 6th of September. The
female sat very close, and this may have been the second nest of the
same pair that built the nest mentioned above, as it was built not far
from the first."
Major C.T. Bingham writes:--"Being at Landour for a few days in May I
chanced on a nest of this bird, perhaps the commonest in the hills. It
was placed under an overhanging bush on the side of Lal Tiba hill, and
_on the ground_, being constructed rather loosely of pieces of
the withered stem of some creeper, intertwined with a quantity of
oak-leaves, and lined with grass-roots."
The eggs, of which I must have seen some hundreds, as this is the
commonest Laughing-Thrush about both Mussoorie and Simla, are
typically regular and moderately broad ovals. Abnormally elongated,
spherical, and pyriform varieties occur; some are nearly round like a
Kingfisher's, and I have seen one almost as slender as a Swift's, but,
as a rule, the eggs vary but little either in shape or colour. They
are perfectly spotless, moderately glossy, and of a delicate pale
greenish blue, which of course varies a little in shade and intensity
of colour, but which is very much paler on the average than those of
any of the _Crateropi_, and at the same time less glossy. I am not at
all sure whether _T. lineatum_ is rightly associated with species like
_T. cachinnans, T. variegatum_, and _T. erythrocephalum_, which all
have spotted eggs.
In length the eggs vary from 0·8 to 1·13, and in breadth from 0·63 to
0·8; but the average of fifty-eight eggs carefully measured is 1·01 by
0·73.