166 JOUBNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETF, Vol. XXV. 



The females vaiy a good deal in tint, and a few are markedly 

 more grey, especialty on the wing qnills and scapulars. 



Colours of soft parts are similar to the same parts in the male, 

 but generally duller. The crimson of the bare parts of the face is 

 duller and darker, more a brick-red than a true crimson or scarlet 

 red ; the irides are brown, or orange-brown ; legs and bill much 

 the same as in the cock bird. 



Measurements. — The female is generally a good deal smaller 

 than the male, but varies very much in size. Wing from 8" to 

 nearly 9" (203-2 to 226-5 mm.); average of thirty-three birds, 

 8-3" (210-8 mm.); tail from 7-8" to 9-1" (198-1 mm. to 229-0 

 nam.) ; tarsus about 2-6" {QQ mm.) ; crest about 3" (76-2 mm.) or 

 a little over. 



" Length 20-0 to 23-0 ; expanse 24-5 to 27-2 ; wing 8-0 to 

 "8-3; tail from vent 7*8 to 9-0; tarsus 2-6 to 2-8; bill from 

 "gape 1-2 to 1-3; weight 1 lb. 4 ozs. to 2 lbs. 4 ozs." 

 (Hume). 

 Young Male. — Similar to the female. 



Chick in first plumage has the crown chocolate brown, with the 

 sides of the head and crown rufous, pale on former, rich and some- 

 what chestnut on the latter ; ear-coverts dark-brown ; upper 

 plumage brown, minutely freckled with black, each feather with 

 paler edging, a conspicuous white spot at the tip, and a broad sub- 

 terminal bar of black edged with rufous ; wing-coverts like the 

 back. Lower plumage dull pale brown, the feathers with whitish 

 shafts and pale edges. 



Distribution. — Along the Himalayas from the River Indus on the 

 West to Nepal on the East, possibly entering the exti-eme West of 

 Nepal as far as the Gogra. Hodgson obtained a skin from West of 

 Jamla, presumably in Nepal, but with no definite locality, and Hume 

 thought that it must have come from still further West, 

 probably from the Kumaon or Garhwal Hills, where it is very 

 common. 



It has been said to extend West into Buneer and Swat, but it is 

 very doubtful if this report is correct, for the country is certainly 

 not suited to the habits of these birds. 



Nidification. — The White-Crested Kalij breeds according to 

 locality from the end of March and early April to the end of June. 

 From 2,000 feet to 4,000 feet or so most nests will be found during 

 . April, but at 6,000 feet not many will be taken until well on into 

 May, and in the highest parts of their breeding ranges their eggs 

 may be found as late as the end of June. They certainly breed up 

 to 9,000 feet and over, and probably up to some 11,000 feet in 

 parts of Kashmir. Magrath records it as a resident bird at Than- 

 diani at an elevation of 9,000 feet, and Dodsworth found it breeding 

 at over this height in the Simla Hills and Native States, whilst 



