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



drinking at the edge of the water, got up with their usual flurry and 

 fluster, and I knocked over the hen, which fell into the adjacent 

 jungle. Going into this to fetch her out, one of the boatmen 

 stumbled on to her nest which contained five fresh eggs. 



The nest is nearly always placed in forest and the class of forest 

 most often chosen is the damp evergreen forest met with every- 

 where along the foot hills and broken ground boi'dering the highe]' 

 ranges of the Himalayas. Inside these might forests, composed of 

 an endless variety of trees, mostly tall and mostly covered with a 

 luxuriant motley of parasites of all kinds, but also with a plentiful 

 undergrowth of canes, brambles and other plants, the Black- 

 breasted Kalij has its favourite haunts. Occasionally in theii' 

 inner depths one may come across tiny green glades in the general 

 dense undergrowth. Here the vivid green moss seems even more 

 green than elsewere, forming a springy carpet ; ferns grow here and 

 there over its surface, and the sun only comes to it in dappled, 

 quivering patches through the branches high overhead. Such 

 spots are much beloved by the Kalij Pheasant, and many a time 

 have I come across its nest in the bushes immediately surrounding 

 them. Comparatively open spots of this description attract numer- 

 ous insects, and I am afraid it is these rather than their special 

 natural beauty which induces the pheasants to commence their 

 domestic duties within easj' reach of them. The nest itself is more 

 often than not placed in some tangle of bushes, briars or canes at 

 the foot of one of the bigger trees, well-concealed from inquisitive 

 friends and enemies, and in some position less moist than its sur- 

 roundings. Ravines with mossy, fern-covered sides are often 

 selected, and in such places a rock or boulder ma}' form its j)i'inci- 

 pal shelter. As a work of art the nest is a failure ; a heap of leaves 

 and rubbisli scratched into a heap with a I'ough depression in the 

 middle for the eggs in the limit attained, and Mother Nature herself 

 and not the birds is responsible for all the collecting that has been 

 done. The great buttresses of the cotton-tree {Bomhax malaharicci) . 

 whicli jDroject on all sides from the main trunk, form recesses into 

 M'hich the winds from every quarter blow their quota of fallen 

 leaves and other oddments, and thus become splendid places in 

 which birds may lay their eggs, and many a nest have I seen both 

 of this plicasant and of other gauie-birds in these cosj" corners. 



Cane brakes, when these are not growing actualh^ in water or 

 marshy land, may often form the home for a brood of chicks, and 

 occasional!}'- the nests may be found in bamboo jungle. Such sites 

 are, however, exceptional in Assam or Bengal, and not common in 

 Bnrmah. Mixed jungle of bush and bamboo, specially when grow- 

 ing on a river bank, is more often resorted to, and the secondary 

 gi'owtli wliich covers deserted jimms, or native clearings, seems to 

 be even better liked. 



