THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 19 



Measvirements and colours of soft parts do not differ from those 

 of the Indian bird except for the ear lappets, as already stated. 

 Adult Female similar to that of Gallns h. ferruijineus . 

 Young Male and C/iick in down cannot be distinguished from the 

 same stages in the Common Indian Jungle-fowl until after the first 

 autumn moult, when the deep red of the upper parts at once be- 

 comes noticeable. The white ear lappets are replaced by red or deep 

 pink even in very j^oung birds, and will always suffice to show to 

 which sub-species a specimen belongs. 



Distrihution. — The whole of Burmah and the Malay Peninsula, 

 Siam, Cochin, China, Sumatra and also Java, and many of the 

 Islands of the Malay Islands, as well as in the Great and Little Cocos. 

 In the Cocos the birds are certainly descended from tame stock, and 

 probably in the majority, if not all of the Malay Islands, their origin 

 is the same. 



Kidification. — The Burmese Jungle-fowl appears to breed princi- 

 pally in the cold weather, from November to March, but in the 

 hills rather later than this, generally in March and A.pril. Even 

 here, however, it is often a very early breeder, for Harington tells 

 me that he found them breeding in January and February in the Chin 

 Hills, obtaining hard-set eggs in the former month and young chicks 

 in the latter. Mr. C. B. Moggridge found broods of young birds as 

 early as the 10th and 14th of January. In Pegu, Gates found 

 them breeding from the end of February or beginning of March on 

 into June and my collectors took eggs here as late as July, whilst 

 Mr. Barton records finding a bird sitting on six eggs at Raheng in 

 Siam on the 11th March. In the Malay Peninsula thej' are said 

 to lay during February, March and April, and I have received eggs 

 laid in these months from the vicinity of Taiping. 



There is nothing to distinguish either nest or eggs from those of 

 the Indian bird. Gates says: 



" As a rule she makes no nest, but merely scrapes out a 

 "hollow at the foot of a bamboo or other bush ; at times there 

 "appear to be a good many leaves under the eggs. These 

 " vary in number from 6 to 9 ; but Captain Wardlaw-Ramsay 

 " once found 11 eggs in one nest ; in coloiir they are pale buff." 

 Mr. C. S. Barton, to whom I have already refei'red, records find- 

 ing a nest containing 6 eggs in an old stump. This is the only 

 record I can find of the bird building off the ground, though it 

 doubtless sometimes makes its nest in clumps of bamboos just as the 

 Indian Jungle-fowl does. 



The usual number of eggs is 5, 6 or 7; often the}' only lay 4, and 

 on the other hand 8 or 9 ma}^ sometimes be found. 



In size, shape and texture they differ in no way from those of 

 the Indian bird. 



General Habits. — The Burmese Jungle-fowl seems to differ in 



