82. Trochalopterum erythrocephalum (Vig.). The Red-headed Laughing-Thrush.
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 3½ inches across and fully 2¼ 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. Marshall remarks:—"I found a nest of this species on the 15th May at Nynee 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 3½ inches broad by nearly 2½ 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.