434 TETRAONID.E. 



love-making, and towards the latter portion of April they begin to 

 l;iy, hatching off as a rule some time in May, though I have found 

 fresh eggs on the 1st June. 



The nest is at best very slight, a little dry grass curled into a 

 whisp, and generally seems to be only represented by a few blades 

 of grass laid in a depression scraped by the birds. It is placed at 

 times under some thick stunted bush or overhanging rock ; more 

 often in the midst of loose stones ; occasionally in one of the scanty 

 tufts of grass that here and there dot these bare hills. They 

 breed at all elevations, from the level of the plains to at least 

 4000 feet. Eight is the largest number of eggs that I have seen 

 in any nest, but many more are said to be at times found. 



Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note on the uidincation 

 of this species in the neighbourhood of Find Dadan Khan and 

 Katas in the Salt Range : 



" Lay in April, May, and June. Eggs, twelve. Shape varies 

 from pyriform to ovato-pyriform. Size, 1*4 by 1. Colour, clear 

 cream-colour. The eggs are laid in a slight hollow among stones 

 in the hills." 



The late Major Cock wrote : " I have taken several nests of 

 this bird near Nowshera in the low adjacent hills dry, parched, 

 and barren places which only a strong love of ornithology would 

 ever tempt a man to enter during the month of May, when the 

 heat is nearly unbearable. The nest is placed under a ledge of 

 rock or between some stones. I once found one under a cairn of 

 stones that had been erected by the herd boys. They lay from 

 eight to twelve eggs. The nest scarcely deserves the name ; a 

 few dry bents, one or two feathers, and a hole in the ground is all 

 the nest they prepare for the reception of their eggs." 



Writing from Afghanistan, Lieut. H. E. Barnes says : " The 

 Seesee is not uncommon, but is not so often met with as the 

 Chukor. It breeds at the same time and in precisely the same 

 localities." 



The eggs of this species are quite of the Bush-Quail type, and 

 though slightly larger are very close to those of Microperdix 

 eryihrorliynclius. In shape they are more or less lengthened ovals, 

 a good deal compressed towards one end ; some are slightly 

 pyriform, and others, though these are the exceptions, more of the 

 true Partridge shape. The texture of the shell is comparatively 

 fine and close, but it is everywhere pitted with minute pores, 

 which, however, are much less visible in some specimens than in 

 others. Some of the eggs have a faint gloss; in others this is 

 scarcely traceable. In colour they vary a good deal ; some are 

 almost pure white, but the majority have a very perceptible creamy 

 or very pale cafe-au-lait tinge. 



In length they vary from 1/3 to 1*5, and in breadth from 1 to 

 1*1 ; but the average of twenty is 1*4 by 1'03. 



