26 JOVRNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI T. 



the buttresses of an enormous Cotton Tree. The nest was under- 

 neath a dense thicket of thorny bushes and impossible to get at 

 withoiit ahnost lying on the ground or else cutting away the jungle. 



The country all round was more or less open grass land, the 

 grass at this time of the year being only about 2 feet high, though 

 by the end of the rains it grew to a height of 4 to even 6 feet. 

 Here and there in the pockets were small patches of forest and scrvib 

 jungle, whilst dotted about over the whole uplands were fine oak 

 trees, and wherever a stream ran, its banks bore a strip of evergreen 

 forest on either side. 



Mr. K. G. Gairdner records finding numerous eggs of the Peafowl 

 in E,atburi and Pechaburi, Siam, and Mr. Barton writing of the 

 birds of the Rahoug District, Siam, quotes Mr. Keddie to the 

 following efiect : — 



" On April 9th, 1912, found a Pea-hen's nest with three eggs, chicks 

 half formed. On 18th March 1913 heard a Pea-hen and chicks on an 

 island. Maung Hpo Loke said he saw them, and they were about a 

 fortnight old. He did not know how many there were, but he saw two." 



Blandford records the breeding season as being du.ring the mon- 

 soons, i.e., the end of June to September near Moulmein and about 

 March near Pegu. It probably extends over most of its habitat 

 from February to May, whilst the majority of eggs will be found in 

 March and April. The number of eggs laid will certainly prove to 

 be about the same as is laid by the Common Peafowl, that is to say, 

 anything between three and six, very rarely more. 



Mr. CM, Inglis, who has been successful in breeding this bird 

 in captivity, sent nie four eggs, a full clutch, which were laid in 

 May. I have also the clutch taken in N. Cachar, and have seen 

 half a dozen other specimens laid by wild birds. In the B.M. 

 collection there are unfortunately only four eggs, all of which were 

 laid by birds in Zoological Gardens. These four eggs were between 

 2-75" and 3-4" in length and 2-05" and 2-15" in breadth. 



The eggs I have measured were between 2-70" (6 8" 6 mm.) and 

 3-16" (80-0 mm.) in length, and between 2-0" (50-8 mm.) and 

 2-2" (55-8 mm.) in breadth. 



They are of course indistinguishable from the Common Peafowl's 

 eggs in shape, texture or colom', but the clutch given to me by 

 Mr. Inglis is extraordinarily richly coloured, somewhat like the eggs 

 of a Brahma fowl. 



Habits. — Throughout the whole of this Peafowl's range it is a bird 

 of the most retiring, shy disposition, keeping to haunts little 

 frequented by mankind, and shunning even the vicinity of villages 

 in the jungles. 



It is a curiously local bird in its distribution, being found in 

 isolated patches here and there with wide intervening spaces where 

 it is never met with, although many parts of it may seem equally 

 suitable to its w^ants. 



