THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 3 
Nidification—This form of rufogularis breeds freely in the Assam 
Hills and in Manipur, Chittagong, etc., at all heights between 1,500 
feet and 6,000 feet, and in the Chin and Kachin Hills apparently still 
higher than this, as it was obtained on Mount Victoria at about 9,000 
feet during the breeding season. Probably its favourite elevation is 
between 3,000 and 6,000 feet, and most of the nests taken by myself 
both in North Cachar and the Khasia Hills were between 4,000 and 
6,000 feet. 
The breeding season commences in the first fortnight in April, and 
continues until the end of May, but I have also found eggs through- 
out the months of June and July and in the first two weeks of August. 
It is, however, quite possible that many birds have two broods, and 
two such imstances at least have come within my own experience. 
It does not seem to be at all particular as to what kind of country 
it makes its nest in so long as there is sufficient cover, and even this 
need not be so very dense. I have personally taken nests from dense 
evergreen forest with the most luxurious undergrowth, and from thin 
bamboo jungle with only a little grass growing in the more open patches 
between the clumps of bamboo. It was common in the beautiful Pine 
forests of the Khasia Hills, and it equally often made its nest in the 
rhododendron and oak forest on the rocky sides of its hills and peaks. 
I also took its nest on more than one occasion in the deciduous oak 
forests in the N. of N. Cachar. Here the trees grew far apart like 
those in a glorified English Park, and their black stems grew straight 
and sombre against a vivid ground of brilliant green grass. For the 
most part the plateau consisted of gently undulating hills and slopes, 
but in some places it was broken up into rocky ravimes and water 
courses in which bushes were more plentiful, and in these the Hill Part- 
ridges bred, often making their nest in some hollow under the shelter 
of a stone or protecting buttress of rock. 
The nests themselves varied very greatly in character. The first 
I ever found was a mere hollow scraped out under a projecting stone 
on a steep hill side. Here and there grew scattered trees and bushes, 
but the grass which had been burnt off some couple of months pre- 
viously was only a few inches high, and still sparse and thin. I was 
coming home after a long day’s gaur shooting and sliding down the 
steep hill to the ravine at the bottom, practically kicked the bird off 
her nest in the dusk. An equally exposed position was that of a nest 
containing four eggs placed in a bed of fallen bamboo leaves in thin 
bamboo jungle with no undergrowth. In neither of these cases was 
there any nest at all beyond the fallen debris lying on the ground 
beneath the eggs. At the other extreme in description are the cleverly 
hidden and well-made nests which one sometimes finds in grass. I 
have seen nests composed of really well interlaced grass matted down 
into a fine compact cup, whilst the surrounding grass was so arranged 
that as it grew it formed a complete back, sides and roof to the nest, 
