Trochalopteron erythrocephalum (_Vig.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 43;
_Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 415.

From Kumaon westwards, at any rate as far as the valley of the Beas,
the Red-headed Laughing-Thrush is, next to _T. lineatum_, the most
common species of the genus. It lays in May and June, at elevations of
from 4000 to 7000 feet, building on low branches of trees, at a height
of from 3 to 10 feet from, the ground.

The nests are composed chiefly of dead leaves bound round into a deep
cup with delicate fronds of ferns and coarse and fine grass, the
cavities being scantily lined with fine grass and moss-roots. It is
difficult by any description to convey an adequate idea of the beauty
of some of these nests--the deep red-brown of the withered ferns,
the black of the grass- and moss-roots, the pale yellow of the broad
flaggy grass, and the straw-yellow of some of the finer grass-stems,
all blended together into an artistic wreath, in the centre of 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 31/2 inches across
and fully 21/4 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.C. Buck sent me the following note:--

"I found a nest of this species near Narkunda (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. Nest
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 _greenish blue_, as I
have tested in dozens of cases.

Colonel G.F.L. Mars