CEBIOBNI8. 409 



nest to speak of is made, but a few feathers are sometimes found 

 about the eggs." 



Captain Hutton writes : " These birds do not occur so low down 

 as Mussoorie, but are found in abundance on the next range. In 

 days of yore they were found at Simla, but civilization has of late 

 years banished them to less disturbed localities. It makes no nest, 

 but lays its eggs on the ground ; the number not satisfactorily 

 ascertained, as one nest contained three, and another four, eggs of 

 a pale brown or sandy hue, thickly sprinkled over with reddish- 

 brown spots and dashes." 



The eggs in shape and size closely approximate to those of our 

 domestic Indian Turkey, but are as a whole slightly larger, and, 

 considering how much heavier the latter bird is than the former, 

 this difference in the egg is remarkable. The shell is fine and 

 compact, showing none of the pores so conspicuous on Peafowl's 

 eggs ; but they have only a faint gloss, and contrast in this respect 

 strongly with the eggs that our domesticated Turkeys here 

 commonly lay. The shape is a long oval, a good deal compressed 

 towards the small end. The ground-colour is a pale cafe-au-lait 

 or buffy white, and they are thickly and coarsely freckled all over, 

 but most thickly over the central portion of the egg, with deep 

 reddish brown, which has a sort of raw sienna tint. The markings 

 are sometimes nearly wanting towards the small end, and are always, 

 I think, least conspicuous and least dense at the two ends. 

 Sometimes the whole egg is densely mottled all over with the 

 reddish brown ; sometimes, again, the markings are almost wholly 

 wanting ; and in some they are gathered into large and compara- 

 tively bold blotches. 



In length the eggs vary from 2*41 to 2-69, and in width from 

 1*7 to 1'89 ; but the average of thirty-six eggs is 2-55 by 1*78. 



Ceriornis satyra (Linn.). The Indian Crimson Tragopan. 



Ceriornis satyra (Linn.}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 516 ; Hume. Rough 

 Draft N. $ E. no. 805. 



The Crimson Tragopan breeds high up, at elevations of from 

 9000 to 12,000 feet, in the forests that lie below the snow, or in 

 dense patches of the hill-bamboo ; but I have never found the eggs 

 myself, and my account is based on the statement of natives, from 

 whom I received the only eggs I possess, which latter were taken 

 in Kumaon in May. 



The eggs are much like large hen's eggs, perhaps rather more 

 elongated and more compressed towards the small end. The shell 

 is only moderately stout, and the surface is conspicuously pitted 

 over with pores. In colour they are nearly white, having only a 

 faint cafe-au-lait colour, and they are here and there very slightly 

 freckled with a pale dull lilac. One egg is somewhat darker and 

 entirely wants these markings. They have very little gloss. In 

 length they vary from 2-54 to 2- 62, and in breadth from 1-8 to 

 1-84. 



