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



April are the two months in which most eggs are laid ; from 3,000 

 to 4,500 feet, the 25th April to end of May or early June are the 

 favourite breeding months, whilst in the highest ranges they breed 

 from May to the end of June, or even Jul}^, and I have had hard-set 

 eggs sent me which were taken in August below Darjeeling. 



The nest is generally a very poor affair, nothing more than a col- 

 lection of dead leaves and grass gathered together by chance — less 

 often by the birds themselves — lying in some natural hollow under 

 the protection of a bush or tree. They are also sometimes found in 

 bamboo jungle, and in these cases the birds seem to scratch a hollov\' 

 in the ground, and fill this with bamboo spates and leaves, then 

 they work a hollow in the centre of these for the reception of their 

 eggs. I have never seen a nest of this species myself, but all my 

 correspondents agree that the nests are almost invariably verj- well 

 concealed ; favourite positions for them are either in ravines, in 

 dense evergreen forest, or in the almost impenetrable secondary 

 growth, which in a couple of j^ears covers deserted cultivation. 

 When bamboo jnngle is selected, it is nearly always very closel}' 

 growing, and the eggs are deposited well in amongst the roots, so 

 that they are not easily sj)otted. 



They also sometimes make their nests in among tea-bushes in Tea 

 Gardens after these have come into full flush, and the undergrowth 

 has sprung up again so as to afford sufficient cover. I imagine, 

 however, that few of these clutches of eggs ever hatch out, for now- 

 a-daj^s tea is so highly cultivated that the weeds are constantlj' hoed 

 outj and the eggs are then discovered and eaten by the coolies. 

 At the same time there is yet plenty of land in the Terai all round 

 about the Tea Estates which is too broken up to be worth cultivat- 

 ing for tea, and here the Kalij still flourishes and breeds without 

 much molestation, for the small native boy does not emulate his 

 white brother in his birds' nesting proclivities. Thus Hume's fear 

 that within a few years of his writing his " Game-Birds, " the Black- 

 backed Kalij would become very rare, has fortiinately not been 

 fulfilled. 



The eggs varjr in number from G to 10, 7 or 8 being the numbers 

 most often found. They differ in no way from those of other Kalij 

 Pheasants, that is to say, they are very similar to the eggs of the 

 common domestic fowl. In colour they vary, as do these, from 

 practically pure white, as recorded by Tickell, and seen also by 

 myself, to a warm, rich cafe-au-lait or buff, whilst they cover the 

 same differences in shape, being normally a broad oval, but slightly 

 compressed at the smaller end. The texture is that of a fowl's egg, 

 usually quite smooth and slightly glossy, sometimes pitted, some- 

 times having the tiny white specks occasionally found in most 

 game-bii'ds' eggs. 



The eggs I have seen, including Hume's series in the British 



