MALAYAN CRESTLESS FIREBACK 105 



would please me. To test the elasticity of such facts I led a Malay headman to assure 

 me one day that the burong mirah mata laid but two eggs and in a tree ! while on the 

 following day, when I expressed disappointment that they deposited so few, he informed 

 me in a burst of confidence that many of the hens laid five times that number ! A female 

 which I shot well to the southward was about to deposit an tg<g, while two others were 

 well developed. The shell was plain buffy-white in colour, with very minute pits. 



The birds spend the night well up in trees, and when a native discovers such 

 a roosting-place he is well-nigh certain of capturing the birds, as he will set scores of 

 nooses in all the grassy runways leading to the tree, and the habit of returning night 

 after night to the same place ensures their capture. They seem to feed at all times of the 

 day, not only early in the morning and in the evening, as with most pheasants. In the 

 game and buffalo trails they scratch like fowls, making a great noise and rustling of 

 leaves. At such times, however, unlike the Himalayan pheasants, they seldom utter 

 a sound, and every moment or two stand erect, motionless and silent, watching, 

 listening, for the dangers which threaten every inmate of the jungle. It is said that 

 the females are more numerous than the males, but this I cannot confirm. The sexes 

 have been approximately equal in the covies or flocks which have come under my 

 observation. 



The food which I have examined in the crops of the birds consists of animal and 

 vegetable matter in about equal proportions. Termites, as usual, are very frequently 

 eaten, ticks and grubs less often. Small hard berries, with but a thin skin over 

 the very large stone, formed the food of two male birds ; poor sustenance, one would 

 think. 



They seem to be stupid birds, and I have never seen one in captivity which showed 

 any relaxation of the shyness or unreasoning wildness of a feral bird. Those which 

 I sent to America were the only ones of their genus to reach that country. In Europe 

 they are better known, and some eighteen or twenty individuals have been received at 

 the London Zoo. These, on an average, have lived about a year and eight months, 

 although one bird remained in the collection for more than nine years. 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male. — Forehead, crown, chin, throat and ear-coverts (the only cephalic 

 feathered areas) dull dark brown, the feathers of the occiput often tipped with chestnut 

 or with a slight whitish freckling. Neck and breast black, glossed with purplish blue. 

 Mantle, upper back and scapulars similar, but freckled or irregularly banded with wavy 

 bars of white ; the gloss dies out gradually on the wing-coverts and secondaries, but 

 the freckled barring persists strongly; the primaries are plain, dark brown. Visible 

 area of lower back, consisting of a wide, terminal, disintegrated fringe, fiery bronze-gold, 

 basally each feather changing abruptly into a narrow bronze-red and then to a white- 

 freckled, steel-blue zone. Posteriorly the gold decreases rather suddenly and the 

 bronze-red takes its place, the basal freckling disappearing at the same time, leaving 

 the clear steel-blue. The deep metallic red or maroon persists strongly up to the 

 longest upper tail-coverts, which are wholly dull steel-blue. The tail is uniform pale 



rufous-buff, with the basal part of the feathers black. The sides of the body, flanks, 

 VOL. n p 



