412 PHASIANID.E. 



have the whole ground as thickly speckled over as possible with 

 minute dots, not one of them much bigger than a pin's point, and 

 so closely set that a pin's head could nowhere be placed between 

 them ; while another egg will have at most a dozen bold blotches, 

 and three or four times that number of good-sized spots, leaving 

 comparatively large spaces of ground-colour utterly unspotted. 

 It is impossible to conceive a richer brownish red than that dis- 

 played in some of these blotches, and eggs of this species of the 

 boldly-coloured type are, I think, the handsomest of all our Indian 

 game-bird's eggs. Taken as a body, they are very like miniature 

 Moonal eggs, and they also remind one much of those of the Euro- 

 pean Black Grouse. 



The eggs vary very much in size, viz., from 1*85 to 2'29 in length 

 and from 1-39 to 1*57 in breadth ; but the average of fifty eggs is 

 2-08 by 1-47. 



Phasianus wallichi (Hardw.). The Cheer. 



Phasianus wallichii (Hardw.}, Je.rd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 530; Hume, 

 Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 809. 



The Cheer breeds throughout the lower ranges of the Hima- 

 layas, at elevations of from 4000 to 7000 or 8000 feet. They also 

 breed from April to June, most of the eggs being laid during May, 

 early or late in the month according as the season is a cold or 

 warm one. Personally 1 have only taken three nests of this species 

 altogether, so that I cannot generalize safely ; but my impression, 

 derived from my limited experience, is that they always nest near 

 or about the foot of some very precipitous hill- side, what the 

 natives call " Dang " cliffs, not absolutely vertical but still the next 

 thiDg to it, broken up into ledges and steps, and studded with 

 down-trailing bushes, tufts or grass, and, growing here and there 

 out of some larger cleft or wider ledge, a few stunted trees. 



In 1853 I was living at a small house behind the " Camel's 

 Back '' at Mussoorie, a house which was afterwards converted into 

 a dispensary. About a thousand feet below and perhaps half a 

 mile from this is a precipice, such as I have described, and at the 

 foot of this, in the midst of a tuft of grass, I found on the 3rd 

 May a nest of the Cheer containing two eggs. It was a mere de- 

 pression, some 14 inches in diameter and 3 inches in depth in the 

 centre, obviously scratched by the birds and strewed, rather than 

 lined, with a few scraps of grass. Eleven more eggs were laid, one 

 daily, and then the hen began to sit. One egg was addled ; the 

 rest were hatched somewhere about the beginning of June, but I 

 kept no note of the date. The whole family then took up its resi- 

 dence in the precipice, and there remained until the middle of 

 October, when, the young being nearly full-grown, I commenced 

 shooting them and shot a brace once or twice a week, until there 

 were only two. or three young ones left. At 11 A.M. they were 

 always in the tipper part of the precipice ; my dogs used to be put 



