Distribution. Khasia Hills only.
Nidification. The breeding season of this subspecies commences in the end of April and ceases in the first week in June, though an odd nest or so, perhaps a second brood, may be found as late as August. The nest is a wide, shallow cup of moss, roots, grasses and dead leaves, bound together with roots, tendrils and stems of reeds and is lined with roots, fern-rachides or, rarely, fine grass. It is a fairly well-built nest, and often looks much like that of some of the true Thrushes. No attempt seems to be made at concealment, and it is usually placed in some tall, thinly foliaged bush, about 6 feet from the ground, in pine- or evergreen-forest.
The eggs are generally two only in number, sometimes three and very rarely four. In type of coloration they are like those of erythrocephalum, but are more boldly marked with a few black or deep purply-red blotches, spots or lines. In a few eggs these markings are verv scanty, but in some are more numerous than in the eggs of other races of this Laughing-Thrush. The average of 50 eggs is 30·6 × 21·0 mm.
Habits. Those of the genus. A bird of the pine-forests from 4,000 feet upwards.
(154) Trochalopterum erythrocephalum melanostigma.
Bltth's Red-headed Laughing-Thrush.
- Garrulax melanostigma Blyth, J. A. S, B., xxiv, p. 268 (1855) (Mt. Muleyit).
- Trochalopterum melanostigma. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 92.
Vernacular names. None recorded.
Description. Forehead, lores and cheeks black, the black of the lores extending to over the eye and merging in a short grey supercilium; ear-coverts and sides of the neck silvery-grey streaked with black; throat and upper breast ferruginous, paling on lower breast aud abdomen and becoming olive-grey on flanks and under tail-coverfs. No spots on either back or breast.
Colours of soft parts. Legs, feet and claws very pale brown to reddish; bill black; iris brown or hazel-brown (Hume & Davis.).
Distribution. Muleyit Mount, Tenasserim, and thence north- wards into the Shan States.
Nidification. Nests and eggs taken by Mr. C. Hopwood resemble those of T. e. chrysopterum, his eggs measure 30·5 × 20·4 mm.
Habits. According to Davison these birds keep in parties of six or eight, feeding chiefly on the ground and keeping much in the brush-wood. They are neither very noisy nor very silent, uttering from time to time a fine whistling call in addition to other numerous conversational notes. They appear to feed exclusively on insects.
