3oi? JO URNAL, B 0MB A Y NA TURAL HIST. SO CIETY, Vol. XXV. 



The eggs are certaiiil}^ not in the least like what I should ha\-e 

 expected, being far more like small, fragile eggs of the Jungle- 

 Fowl than those of the True Pheasants. At the same time, even 

 if Mr. Mackenzie had not, as he informs me in a letter, on the one 

 occasion seen the bird leave the nest, it would have been difficult 

 to attribute them to any other bird than Mi's. Hume's Pheasant. The 

 Jungle-Fowl does not breed at 7,000 feet in this part of Burmah, 

 and the eggs are much too small for any of the forms of Silver or 

 Kalij Pheasants which are to be found in the Chin Hills and, more- 

 over, though superficially just like Jungle-Fowls' eggs, those I have 

 seen are more finely grained, with a closer texture, slightlj^ glossed, 

 and with much thinner shells in proportionto their size. 



Eggs very similar to those in my collection — which I owe to the 

 generosity of the above-named gentleman-— are four eggs laid by 

 P. elegans in the Zoological Society's Gardens in Regent's Park, 

 and which are now in the Natural History Museum. Both Phasianus, 

 scintillans and P. elliotti also lay cream or stone-coloured eggs, so 

 that there is really nothing extraordinary in Mrs. Hume's bird 

 doing the same. 



In shape they are broad ovals, but little compressed towards the 

 smaller end, and do not appear to vary much, but one egg in Mr. 

 Mackenzie's series is a comparatively long oval measuring 1-99" x 

 1-31" (50-5 X 33-2 mm.). 



In length the 30 eggs of which I have measurements vary be- 

 tween 1-78" and 2-03" (45-2 and 52-8 mm.), and in breadth between 

 1-31" and 1-48'' (33*2 and 37-6 mm.), the average of the same 

 number being 1-88" x 1-39" (47-7 x 35-3 mm.). 



These Pheasants would appear to be earlj^ breeders, for both the 

 clutches obtained in the end of April were so hard set that they 

 must have been laid in March, and, though it is hardly safe to 

 generalise on such scanty material, the 1 5th March to the 1 5th May is 

 probably the limit of their breeding season. 



General Habits. — This beautiful Pheasant, according to reports 

 made to Hume by his Kamhow collectors, is found 



" In dense hill forests at elevations of from 2,500 feet (the 

 " height of the lower end of the Manipur Plain, or, as it is 

 "mis-called, valley) to fully 5,000 feet. They prefer the 

 " neighboui-hood of streams, and are neither rare nor shy." 



This description of their habitat is probably not correct. For 

 fifteen years I lived in the North Cachar Hills next to Manipur, and 

 yearly visited the Jhiri Valley, and worked it and the adjoining 

 hills most exhaustively up to 5,000 and 6,000 feet, but never saw 

 nor heard of this bird being found there. All my Manipuri collec- 

 tors, also, assured me that the bird was not found until one got into 

 the far higher country running from the Naga Hills round the far 

 North and Fast of tlie Manipur Plain at elevations from 4,000 feet 



