\ 



THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 897 



The slate colour of the head and nape is much darker, almost black, 

 and the chestnut of the forehead and sides of the head appear to be 

 rather richer in tint. 



Colours of the soft ixirts. — Have not yet been recorded, but judg- 

 ing from the skin, the legs appear to have been a fawnj^ brown, 

 probably tinged wdth flesh colour in life. The cere and orbital 

 skin has evidently been orange-red, and the bill practically black. 



Measurements. — The female is rather smaller than the male; the 

 wing varying from 7-2" (=183-9 mm.) to 7-80" (==190-1 mm.), 

 with the other measurements in corresponding proportion. 



Distribution. — Originally obtained in Yunnan Hills on the Mek- 

 ong River, and now known to extend from the Mishmi and Abor 

 Hills North and East of the Dihong or Brahmaputra River into the 

 higher ranges of Burma and Yunnan into the North of the Shan 

 States. 



Nidif cation. — The only description of this bird's nesting is con- 

 tained in a letter written to me bj^ Capt. F. M. Bailey, as follows : — 

 " I send you two eggs of the Blood Pheasant, which were 

 got by Morshead. He found the nest in the Mishmi Hills at 

 about 12,000 feet in the beginning of May. There were three 

 fresh eggs on the ground under a clump of bamboo, the ground 

 around being under snow^" 

 The two eggs sent me are regular Lagopics eggs, and could hardly 

 be distinguished from some of the eggs of that bird. 



The ground colour is a pale orange or pinkish buff, and they are 

 profusely covered over the whole of their surface with specks, spots 

 and irregular small blotches of rich sienna brown, in both eggs the 

 blotches being somewhat more numerous round the centre of the 

 eggs than elsewhere. 



The shell is very stout, and is close and firm in texturs, with a 

 distinct gloss. In shape the eggs are regular ovals, the smaller 

 end being practically^ the same as the larger. They measure 

 1-77" X 1-26" (= 244-9x32-0 mm.) and 1-76" x 1-25" (= 

 44-7x31-7 mm.) 



As regards the habits of the Yunnan Blood Pheasant, these seem 

 to differ in no way from those of the Nepal bird. 



They have been frequentty seen recently by various members of 

 the different surveys of the Mishmi and Abor Hills, and all agree 

 that the birds are remarkable principally for their fearlessness and 

 lethargy. 



Capt. Bailey writes me :- 



" They are most extraordinarily common in certain parts of 

 the country we visited, keeping close to the snow-line, and 

 apparently moving up and down between 8,000 and 12,000 or 

 14,000 feet as the snow increased or receded with the cold and 

 warm seasons. They are often found well above the snowline. 



