NEPAL KALIJ 185 



qualities, but the group generally are not better eating than 

 ordinary tame fowls. 



These birds breed from the Tarai to an elevation of 8,000 feet, 

 so that it is not surprising that the eggs may be found, according 

 to elevation, from early in April to late in June. The nest is 

 well hidden in low cover, such as grass or fern, but is very slight 

 as a rule. The sitting is usually nine, and the colour is some 

 shade of buff. They are about the size of small hen's eggs. 

 The hen sits, says Hume, for rather over three weeks, and the 

 cock keeps with her and the brood till they are nearly full grown. 

 The mature weight of this bird, by the way, is rather over two 

 pounds in the cock and about half a pound less in the hen. In 

 the North-west Himalayas the sexes are discriminated by name — 

 Kalesiir, applying to the cock, and Kalesi to the hen, while 

 Kolsa is the Punjabi and Chamba name for the species. As 

 wild hybrids are very rare in India, it is worth mentioning that 

 Hume once shot a male bird which he thought must have been 

 a cross between this and a koklass, and Captain Fisher got one 

 which had the head, neck, and crest of the kalij, while the back 

 and alternate feathers of the tail were like a monal's. 



Nepal Kalij. 



*GenncBus leucomelanus. liechaho, Bhutia. 



It is not at all surprising that this species in Hindustani 

 simply shares the name of Kalij with the common white-crested 

 bird, for except that the present bird has a black crest, not quite 

 so long and therefore not drooping, the two are practically alike, 

 blue-black above and dirty-white below, with the rump trans- 

 versely barred with pure white. The kalij of Nepal, however, 

 which is not found elsewhere, and is at any rate, except, perhaps, 

 on the extreme eastern and western ends of that kingdom, the 

 only kind found there, is not quite so rusty-looking above as the 

 white-crested, nor so stout and pale in the leg, nor is it quite so 

 large in most cases. 



*Eux)locamus on plate. 



