406 PHASIANID^. 



Colonel Q-. F. L. Marshall says :— " The Peafowl breed during the 

 rains in the Saharunpoor, Bolundshahr, and Aligurh Districts. 

 The eggs are laid on the ground, usually among the thick under- 

 wood on the canal-banks. 



" Near Bolundshahr I got six eggs on the 27th July ; the shell 

 is much pitted, pure fawn-colour in some, and stained with darker 

 brown in others. 



" Again in the Aligurh District I found four fresh eggs on the 

 5th August ; they were laid on the bare ground, inside, but near 

 th© edge, of an old heap of dry sticks, round which grass had sprung 

 up tall and thick ; this small thicket was in an open plain close to 

 a road with no bushes or undergrowth near. 



" But they sometimes breed later and choose more exposed 

 situations even than this. On the Slst August I took three fresh 

 eggs, laid without any attempt at concealment whatever : they were 

 on the ground on a dry patch amongst very short grass under the 

 trees on the canal-bank ; there was no undergrowth, and the eggs 

 could be seen from some distance." 



Mr. E. M. Adam remarks ; — " I had eggs of this species brought 

 to me in Agra on the 14th October. The eggs were a good deal 

 incubated." 



The late Mr. A. Anderson wrote to me that " the Peafowl breeds 

 in the North- West Provinces, during June, July, and August, the 

 latter being about the most general month. About November the 

 young birds are the size of chickens, and are then well worth shooting 

 for the table. Sometimes, though rarely, I have seen ten and 

 twelve chicks following one hen ; but these, no doubt, are amalga- 

 mated broods, for I have never found more than six eggs in one 

 nest (I believe, however, that they occasionally lay up to seven or 

 eight), and sometimes only three or four. 



" Three years ago, a chuprassy, who, from long practice, had 

 become somewhat arboreal ia his habits, brought me three fresh 

 Peafowl's eggs from an old nest of Oyps bengalensis. Shortly 

 afterwards I saw the nest, which was situated on a huge horizontal 

 bough of a burgot, in the centre of some dh^k jungle, and on which 

 all the Peafowl in the neighbourhood were in the habit of roosting. 

 I have every reason to believe my chuprassy, because he had no 

 object in wishing to deceive me, and my own experience is in favour 

 of these birds laying at high elevations (the same remark is appli- 

 cable to a good many gallinaceous birds), for I have on several 

 occasions taken their eggs from the roofs of huts in deserted villages, 

 high mounds, and from the tops of pucka musjids, on which rank 

 vegetation grew to the height of two or three feet." 



Professor Littledale, writing from Baroda, says : — " The Peahen 

 generally nests on the ground. Here the country is very flat, and 

 gets so flooded that trees are used. I found, on the 30th September, 

 1884, a nest and five eggs, hard-set, in a triple fork of a mango-tree 

 12 feet from ground." 



Colonel Butler writes : — "The Peahen lays in the neighbourhood 

 of Deesa in July, August, and September. The nest consists of a 



