THE QAME BIRDS OF lAJJIA, 54.> 



forehead and crown become glossed with green and the \\hite featliertf 

 of the cape show as palt^ grey feathers with black tips and white 

 sub-tips. Short central tail feathers some 8 to 12 inches in lengtln 

 similar to those of the ^adidt, but duller, are also acquired diu-ing 

 the first autumn. 



,1 CkicI: with the wing cjuills Avell developed and evident ]\ 

 capable of strong flight, has the head fulvous, a dark line of chest- 

 nut running from the base of the bill and widening at the crown, 

 and again on the nape to cover the whole hind neck ; side of head 

 pale dull chestnut, buff with two tiny bars of black behind the ear- 

 coverts; chin, throat and foreneck dull, ver}^ pale buff; upper parts^ 

 wings and tail barred and freckled chestnut, buft" and black ; below 

 dull pale buff' with wide, but indistinct bars of blackish. 



Distribution. — ^Mountains of Western China, Eastern and Soutli- 

 Eastern Tibet, Yunnan and Northern Shan States, and the Kachin 

 Hills in Upper Burmah. It will probably be found at suitable eleva- 

 tions, and in suitable country as far West as the Irrawaddy River. 



The first record of this fine Pheasant being found in Burmah was- 

 that of Gates in the Appendix to his iNJanualof Indian Game-Birds, 

 \\here he notes on a specimen shot by one of the officers on the 

 Burmo-Chinese Boundary Delimitation Commission. The exagt 

 localitv is not given, but the bird was said to have been shot either 

 in the Bhamo or ]\l3^itkyina District. 



In 1904 Lieut, YskW Someran shot an exceptionally fine male 

 near Sadon in the Myitkyina District, and another was obtained 

 in the cold weather of 1910-11 by Capt. Burd of the 93rd Pun- 

 jabis, somewhere on the borders of the same district. 



Nidiu'cfition. — As far as [ know there is nothing at present on 

 record about the nidification of this bird in a wild state, and the 

 only details I have in regard to their nests are some given by 

 native collectors, together with' two clutches of eggs taken in 

 Szechuen, These notes declare the eggs to have been taken 

 from off' the ground in heavy forests where they had been laid on 

 a few fallen leaves under the protection of a bush. The two 

 clutches were of 4 and 7 eggs respectively, but, judging 

 from the number of eggs laid by these birds in captivity — a A-ery 

 unsafe guide — they probably lay 10 or 12 eggs in a sitting. 



The two clutches of eggs referred to are both a buff" stone 

 colour, slightly paler in the four clutch than in the other, and 

 the former again has one egg much paler and also moi'e of 

 a creamy tint than the rest. The eggs in the larger clutch 

 are in shape rather long ovals, distinctly compressed towards 

 the smaller end, those in the smaller clutch are more regular 

 ovals, shorter in comparison and with the smaller end but little 

 more compressed than the larger. The texture is that of an 

 ordinary fowl's egg, 

 4 



