PATO. 405 



Mr. Gates, writing from Pegu, says : — " I took a nest with fresh 

 eggs on the 25th July. It is a common bird throughout Pegu." 



The eggs are moderately elongated ovals, much pointed at both 

 ends, though rather more so at one end than the other. The 

 • texture is fairly close but slightly chalky, and they rarely have 

 much gloss. When first laid they are white, faintly tinged with 

 blue or green. In England the eggs are said to be pure white, but 

 all those that I have seen in India have always, if quite fresh, 

 exhibited a faint bluish-green tinge. Owing to the bird's habit of 

 covering the eggs over with wet water-weeds, whenever it leaves 

 them for a time, they become rapidly discoloured, turning green, 

 dingy yellowish brown, and then dark earthy-brown, like a hard- 

 set Shell-Ibis's egg. 



In length they vary from 1'28 to 1"52, and in breadth from 

 0-77 to I'l ; but the average of forty eggs measured was 1-39 hy 

 0-99. 



Order GALLINiE. 



Family PHASIANIDtE. 



Pave cristatus, Linn. The Indian Peafowl. 



Pavo cristatus, Linn., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 606 ; Hume, Rough Draft 

 N. 8f E. no. 803. 



The Common Peafowl is found in suitable localities throughout 

 India wherever there is cover, natural or artificial, as of sugarcane 

 and other dense crops, and a plentiful supply of water. Canal- 

 banks fringed with trees and traversing rich cultivation are their 

 especial delight, and in such localities I have found a great many 

 nests, my search for them being stimulated by the conviction that 

 a wild Peahen's eggs are delicious eating, far preferable to Turkey's 

 or, indeed, any others that I have ever tried. They are not confined 

 to the plains, but, alike in the Himalayas, Nilghiris, and other suit- 

 able ranges, breed up to elevations of from 3000 to 5000 feet. 



The great majority lay during July and August, but I have found 

 eggs as late as the middle of October. The nest is made in amongst 

 thick grass or in dense bushes, often on a sloping bank, and is a 

 broad depression scratched by the hen, and lined with a few leaves 

 and twigs or a little grass. I have never myself found eggs in the 

 abnormal situations described below by Mr. A. Anderson. 



I have never found more than eight eggs in any nest, and I think 

 that six or seven are the usual complement ; but natives say (and 

 see also Miss Cockburn's remarks) that they lay at times much 

 larger numbers. 



