THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 325 



*' five eggs in a clutcli but have known birds to incubate on 

 "three or four only, and clutches of four or five eggs are about 

 "equally coramon. 



" The hen bird sits very close and when disturbed from the 

 * ' nest generally sneaks quietly away on foot. I have not noticed 

 " males in the vicinity of the nest and cannot say whether 

 "betakes any interest in the young when hatched," 

 " Mountaineer " — (Mr. F. Wilson) gives a description of the breeding 

 habits which agrees very closely with the above and expresses his 

 doubt as to the occurrence of clutches of eggs of eight or nine as 

 alleged by some sportsmen and others. Major Cock, not always very 

 accurate in oological details, mentions clutches of the Moonal as 

 varying from five to eight, w^hilst Hutton found clutches of three and 

 four only. Beebe found a hen sitting on two eggs considerably 

 advanced in incubation and says that sets of two eggs are by no means 

 unknown. He also speaks of eight eggs in a set as perfectly authenti- 

 cated, but does not quote his authority. 



In captivity all game birds nearly will lay a very much greater 

 number of eggs than they do in a wild state. Thus I have known an 

 Impeyan lay sixteen eggs, a Crossoptilon lay thirty-two, and so on, 

 consequently the number of eggs laid by a bird in confinement is no 

 criterion of the number of eggs we might expect in a state of nature. 

 The only exception appears to be the Polyplectron which invariably 

 lays only two when caged, though she may rarely lay four or five in 

 her own forest home. 



At the present day I know of no place where Moonal are so numerous 

 that, as described by Hume "several nests may be found within a 

 circle of a hundred yards as if the females were, even at this season (as 

 they are at all others), more or less gregarious." In certain parts of 

 Garhwal, Kashmir and Chitral they are still common, but one would 

 have to work hard and cover much ground to find more than two or 

 three nests in a day. 



The eggs, as noted by Hume remind one much of Turkeys' eggs, 

 though normally they are more richly and much more profusely 

 marked. 



In ground colour they vary from a very pale dirty buffy white to a 

 rather warm cafe-au-lait, never of at all a rich hue. The markings 

 consist of specks, spots and freckles of reddish-brown distributed thickly 

 all over the surface of the egg, but often in a denser ring round the centre 

 of it. Some eggs have a few blotches in addition to the spots and 

 freckles, though these are seldom of any size, and in a few the blotches 

 are more numerous and bigger and the freckles more sparse, so that 

 the eggs have a handsome boldly marked appearance. One clutch 

 of four in the collection of Mr. Whymper is a very handsome one, the 

 ground colour a pale bright buff, whilst the blotches are particularly 

 large and richly coloured, the speckles being practically absent. 



