THE GAME BIRDS OF IM)IA. 13 



3-4" (86-3mm.) to4-r' (104-lmm.); crest about 1-5" (38- 1 mm.); 

 bill at front about 1-3" (33-0 mm.) and from gape about 1-6" (40-6 

 mm.). 



Hume gives the wing of the female as running up to 10-75" 

 (275 mm.) 



« Weight, 3 to 3-5 lbs." (Hume.) 



The Young Female is duller above and the chestnut of the 

 head is little, if any, brighter than the rest of the plumage. The 

 mottlings are generally stronger and more plentiful and the 

 scapulars have a few broad bars of black. Below the chestnut is 

 but slight in extent, and is confined to the fore neck. 



Distribution. — South Western Siam, the Malay Peninsula and 

 Sumatra. The female in the British Museum Collection marked 

 " Borneo " is of course not from that island. 



This fine Pheasant only enters our limits in the South of 

 Tennasserim about as far North as the latitude of Tennasserim 

 Town, but is apparently very common further South. 



Nidification. — There is, as far as I can find, absolutely nothing 

 on record about the nidification of this Pheasant in a wild state, and 

 very little in caged state, although it is a common enough bird in 

 captivity. Haime's collection contains a single egg laid by a bird 

 under the latter conditions in Julj'', and the only eggs laid by wild 

 birds that I know of are two in my own collection purchased from 

 the Waterstradt Collection and taken in JNIalacca on 4th April. 



The egg obtained by Hume measures 2-25" by 1-68" (57-1 by 

 39*6 mm.), the two in my own collection measure 51'0 by 39*3 mm. 

 and 52*7 by 39-5 mm. In shape and texture they are similar 

 to rather thin shelled domestic-fowls' eggs, and in colour they are 

 a pale stone or buff". Hume calls his egg a delicate cafe-au-lait, 

 but I should prefer to call this also a very pale dull buff. The 

 surface in all these eggs is smooth, but with little gloss, and my 

 two eggs are stained here and there from the rubbish upon which 

 they were laid. 



The only notes obtainable about the wild-laid eggs were as 

 follows :— - 



" Brought in by native collectors with the skin of the 

 " adult bird ; said to have been placed in a nest composed of 

 " dead leaves, grass and bamboo spates under some thick 

 *' bushes in dense evergreen forest." — Malacca, 4/4/1899., low 



Beyond the fact that of the eggs known one was laid in July 

 and two in .April ; it is impossible to say when the breeding season 

 commences or ends. 



General Habits. — The Fire-Back appears to be a bird of the 

 dense low country evergreen forest, not being found in the higher 

 hills anywhere within its habitat. Over most of its range it is a 

 comparatively common bird, and many are trapped and kept in 



