422 PHASIANID^E. 



Tbe eggs vary much in size, shape, and tint ; but there are two 

 extreme forms between which all others are intermediate links 

 the one is a long oval, with a fine compact hen's-egg-like shell, of a 

 very pale creamy -white colour, and with only a faint gloss ; the other 

 has a comparatively coarse shell, conspicuously pitted all over with 

 pores after the fashion of Guinea-fowls' or Peahens', but yet glossy, 

 is of a broad oval shape, slightly pointed towards the smaller end, 

 and of a rich, almost deep, cafe-au-lait. 



Between these two types, which no one but an oologist would at 

 first sight believe to belong to the same species, every intermediate 

 form, some of them thickly speckled in parts with brownish red, 

 are met with. 



The eggs vary from 1*68 to 2'05 in length, and from 1*21 to 

 1-5 in breadth ; but the average of twenty-five eggs measured is 

 1-84 by 1-38. 



G-allus lafayettii, Less. The Ceylon Jungle- fowl. 

 Gallus lafayettii, Less., Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 812 bis. 



Of the Ceylon Jungle-fowl Mr. Layard tells us : " The hen 

 selects a decaying stump or thick bush for a nesting-place, and lays 

 from six to twelve eggs of a rich cream-colour, finely mottled with 

 reddish-brown spots. Axis, one inch nine lines; diameter, one 

 inch four lines. The young are hatched in June." 



Colonel W. V. Legge, writing to me from Ceylon, says : " Like 

 Gcdloperdix bicalcaratus, the Ceylon Jungle-fowl would appear to 

 nest throughout a considerable portion of the year or else during 

 the north-east monsoon at different times, the same pair rearing 

 more than one brood, and thus continuing to lay until late into each 

 season ; the latter may no doubt be the correct hypothesis. The 

 facts of the case are these, however : young broods may be seen 

 about with the parents in the south-west of the island as early as 

 February. I have seen the same in the south-east at the beginning 

 of July, and have taken eggs in the southern mountains on the 

 8th August. 



" The nest is situated in the jungle or forest, under the shelter 

 of a tree, log, or bush, and consists of a hole or slight hollow 

 scraped in the ground and a few leaves for lining. I have found 

 it placed close to the trunk of a forest-tree between two projecting 

 surface roots. The eggs are from two to four in number and vary 

 in size and depth of ground-colour, and also in the quantity of the 



with minute calcareous specks on the whole surface. The 

 other two are stone-white, finely stippled all over with minute 

 points of reddish grey, the former with a few faint small spots of 

 the same hue at the obtuse end, the latter spotted more numerously 

 at the same end with brownish red. 



