206 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIV. 



A male in the possession of E-ontledge in Calcutta, which I saw 

 frequently, never gave this frontal display but would walk round 

 the full extent of his cage, encircling two or three females in the 

 centre and at the same time gradually erecting and spreading his 

 tail ; during these perambulations one wing was carried almost per- 

 pendicularly over his back, whilst that nearest the female was spread 

 downwards until it touched the ground. Occasionally the bird 

 would stop in its walk and force itself hard up against the wire 

 netting which formed the enclosure and apparently make an effort 

 to still further expand both wings and tail. On several occasions 

 I saw one of the females respond to the male with a minor display 

 after which she approached close to him and squatted on the ground 

 evidently inviting his attentions. j] ^^,(.;;— • 



It is probable that Davison's estimate of seven or eight eggs to 

 the clutch may be excessive as one of my collectors was informed 

 that two or three eggs constituted a clutch, and that more than this 

 number was exceptional. 



Two eggs laid in confinement in Zoological Society's Gardens are 

 described by Oates as " blunt ovals, smooth and fairly glossy." 

 They are pale reddish buff, freckled with pale reddish brown. In 

 one specimen the freckless are coarse and distributed all over the 

 shell ; in the other they are miniite and clustered round the two ends. 

 " The dimensions of two examples are respectively 2-55 b}^ 1"85; 

 2-6 by 1-9." 



I have two eggs in my own collection taken by Waterstradt or 

 one of his collectors which were laid by wild birds. These two 

 eggs, which are of different clutches, vary very considerably. The 

 one is a pale cafe-au-lait, so minutely stippled with a darker shade 

 of the same, that the Qgg appears almost unicoloured ; the other egg 

 is a pale clear cream. Both eggs are very smooth in texture, but not 

 glossy ; the grain is fine and close but the shells are fragile for such 

 large eggs. The two measure, respectively, 2-65" (67'3mm) 

 X 1-67" (42-4mm) and 2-72" (69-lmm) x 1-82" (46-3mm). 



Habits. — Although so many years, 36 to be exact, have passed' 

 since Davison wrote his most interesting account of this bird's habits, 

 no other description has been written to modify or to contradict it, 

 or to give its a further insight into its habits. He writes : — 



" They live quite solitarily, both males and females. Every 

 " male has his own drawing-room, of which he is excessively 

 "proud, and which he keeps scrupulously clean. They haunt 

 " exclusively the depths of the evergreen forests, and each male 

 " chooses some open level spot, sometimes down in a dark 

 " gloomy ravine, entirely surrounded and shut in by dense cane 

 "brakes and rank vegetation, sometimes on the top of a hill 

 " where the jungle is comparatively open, from which he clears 

 " all the dead leaves and weeds, for a space of six or eight 



