34 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



Plains in April, whilst he took eggs in Kukal Korale in August. 

 Again writing to Hume he notes having seen j^oung birds with 

 their parents in the South of the Island as early as February , 



Mr. W. E. Wait of the Ce3don Civil Service informs me that " the 

 birds breed more or less throughout the year, and I have eggs taken 

 in the months of Februar}'-, April, June and August," whilst I have 

 seen others taken in some of the months already mentioned and also 

 January, Ma}^ and November. 



As a rule the Ceylon Jungle-fowl makes its nest of- a pile of 

 leaves and fallen rubbish in some natural hollow in forest. In his 

 " Birds of Ceylon" Legge writes : — 



" The nest is almost alwaj^s placed on the ground near a 

 " tree, under a bush, or beneath the shelter of a fallen log; a 

 " hollow is scratched and a few dry leaves placed in it for the 

 " eggs to repose upon. [ once found a nest in damp soil 

 " between the large pi'ojecting flange-like roots of the Doon- 

 " tree, containing two eggs partially incubated. 



"In 1873 Mr. Parker found a nest on the top of a young 



" tree about 30 feet high. He writes me that it had the 



' appearance of a Crow's or Hawk's nest, of ^^'hich the Jungle- 



" hen had taken possession. She flew off and three eggs were 



" found to be in the nest." 



This curious habit of making its nest at some considerable 



height from the ground seems to be rather a characteristic of this 



Jungle-fowl. Many years ago I was told that such was the case 



by Mr. W. A. T. Kellow and by a jMr. W. Jenkins who collected 



for me in Ceylon and recently Mr. W. E. Wait again refers to tliis 



trait. He says : — 



" In one respect I differ from Legge's account of the nest- 

 " ing of the Ceylon Jungle-fowl, or perhaps I should say 

 '' siipplement what he says, for I would add that this bird's 

 " nest is quite as often built off the ground as on it. The 

 " most peculiar situation I have come across was in an oven- 

 " shaped hollow about 8 feet from the ground in a fairly large 

 *' tree which stood at the edge of a cart track running 

 " through the jungle. A big braiich had been torn off at its 

 "junction with the stem of the tree and the socket had rotted 

 " out. In the hollow thus formed four eggs had been laid on 

 " a soft layer of touch -wood which had crumbled to dust. On 

 " another occasion I came across a nest in a biish overhanging 

 " a dry water course. It was a mere depression in a matted 

 " platform of dead leaves which had been swept down the 

 " water course in some flood, and had been caught up by the 

 " overhanging branches. 



" A favourite site is a stump of a tree which has been 

 *\felled and left standing after the tree has been taken away. 



