48 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



two other favourite items of diet in the order of their abundance. Bamboo shoots, 

 earthworms, small centipedes and moths are also eaten freely. 



The breeding season in Upper Burma corresponds to that in other parts of the 

 range — April and May, with delayed broods extending into June. The nest is a hollow 

 in the ground, usually at the foot of a tree, the eggs sometimes laid on the moss of the 

 forest floor or again on a layer of dead leaves. Four to six eggs are laid, but two to three 

 seems to be the usual number of young reared to maturity. The eggs show considerable 

 variation, from pale buffy white to a rich cafdau lait, and even a still warmer, redder tone. 

 Almost all are speckled with dots of white calcareous matter, which are more conspicuous 

 on the darker specimens. They are usually a rather broad oval, smooth and somewhat 

 glossy, and measure from 35 to 38 mm. in breadth, and from 46 to 52 mm. in length, with 

 an average of 36 by 49 mm. 



Horsfield's Kaleege is not uncommonly exported from India, and breeds readily in 

 confinement. They live well, and in the case of seven individuals in the London Zoo 

 the average length of life was almost four years, while one bird lived for nine. 



Stuart Baker probably knows the Black-breasted Kaleege better than any living 

 white man, and also knows how to put his knowledge upon paper, and I cannot refrain 

 from quoting, from his account in the 191 7 volume of the " Journal of the Bombay Natural 

 History Society," both his description of the haunts of the bird and of his most successful 

 day's hunt. " The nest is nearly always placed in forest, and the class of forest most 

 often chosen is the damp evergreen forest met with everywhere along the foothills and 

 broken ground bordering the higher ranges of the Himalayas. Inside these mighty 

 forests, composed of an endless variety of trees, mostly tall and mostly covered with a 

 luxuriant motley of parasites of all kinds, but also with a plentiful undergrowth of canes, 

 brambles and other plants, the Black-breasted Kaleege has its favourite haunts. 

 Occasionally in their inner depths one may come across tiny green glades in the general 

 dense undergrowth. Here the vivid green moss seems even more green than elsewhere, 

 forming a springy carpet ; ferns grow here and there over its surface, and the sun only 

 Gomes to it in dappled, quivering patches through the branches high overhead. Such 

 spots are much beloved by the Kalij Pheasant, and many a time have I come across its 

 nest in the bushes immediately surrounding them. Comparatively open spots of this 

 description attract numerous insects, and I am afraid it is these, rather than their special 

 natural beauty, which induces the pheasants to commence their domestic duties within 

 easy reach of them. The nest itself is more often than not placed in some tangle of 

 bushes, briars or canes at the foot of one of the bigger trees, well concealed from 

 inquisitive friends and enemies, and in some position less moist than its surroundings. 

 Ravines with mossy, fern-covered sides are often selected, and in such places a rock or 

 boulder may form its principal shelter. As a work of art the nest is a failure : a heap 

 of leaves and rubbish scratched into a heap, with a rough depression in the middle for the 

 eggs, is the limit attained, and Mother Nature herself, and not the birds, is responsible for 

 all the collecting that has been done. The great buttresses of the cotton-tree [Bombax 

 malabaricd), which project on all sides from the main trunk, form recesses into which 

 the winds from every quarter blow their quota of fallen leaves and other oddments, and 

 thus become splendid places in which birds may lay their eggs, and many a nest have I 

 seen, both of this pheasant and of other game-birds, in these cosy corners. 



