THE GAME BIBDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 735' 



Vicls for the purpose of breeding. The large Vicls round Uajkot,. 

 such as Kalipat, Kotaria, Ghanteshwar, Damalpur, etc., are cele- 

 brated for them at this season of the year, and I have here seen 

 over twenty birds in one morning." 



" There seems alwaj^s to be a preponderence of cock-birds, but 

 perhaps they are more in evidence than the hens, owing to their- 

 habit of jumping, and hens are, I think, at all times more difficult 

 to flush than are the cocks. I cannot say where the greater num- 

 ber betake themselves after the breeding season is past, but it is 

 an undoubted fact that very few remain in the Province, as thej' 

 are rarely met with in the cold weather." 



Allusion has already been made to the curious habit displayed 

 by this bird of jumping into the air, to some height above the 

 surrounding vegetables, in order to attract the notice of the oppo- 

 site sex. Generally it is the male alone which resorts to this 

 trick, but sometimes, at all events, the female also does indulge in 

 it. Hume himself saj^s that he has seen the female jumping, 

 though he adds that this is onl}* for the purpose of catching flies,, 

 etc., as they are disturbed from the grass. Mr. Wenden, however,, 

 whom Hume quotes, distinctly saw the female bird as well as the 

 male jumping, and thus describes his experience — "On the 16th 

 I went out and watched this bird for more than an hour, just about 

 the time at which she had been flushed on the morning before 

 from the single e^g. From the tree on which I sat, with my 

 binoculars, I saw her running rapidly out of the dense preserve^, 

 across the open and into the scanty patch in which was her Qgg~ 

 Here she moved about for some minutes feeding, and every now 

 and then sprang into the air with a low clucking cry, which was 

 answered by the male bird from the preserve, though at first I 

 could not see him. Then as though a sudden thought had struck 

 her, she darted to the nest, and after one or two springs, and 

 walking round and round the egg, she squatted and deposited 

 another. While she sat, she was quite silent, but the male bird,, 

 who had now advanced closer to me, kept springing in the air and 

 crying continuall}-. The operation of laying the egg seemed to 

 last about twenty minutes — i.e., from the time she sat to the time 

 she rose and having made another spring or two walked round the 



