424 PHASIANIBiE. 



monogamous ; certainly both cock and hen are usually to be found 

 in the vicinity of the nests and in company with the young. 



It lays from four to seven eggs, I should say, but others have 

 found as many as ten. The hen seems to sit unusually close; at 

 any rate I have twice known one captured by the hand by a native 

 on the nest. 



From Aboo Dr. King writes to me :^" This species is common 

 at Aboo in the valleys, ranging as high as 4000 feet, but is most 

 plentiful from about 1500 to 3000 feet above the sea. It prefers 

 dense jungle about nullahs, where there is a thick undergrowth, 

 and especially where there is much bamboo. 



"1 never took the nest myself, but its eggs were brought me 

 during the early part of May, and my shikarees and the Bheels 

 employed said that the nests were iiat and shallow, composed of 

 dry bamboo-leaves placed under, or even in the middle of, clumps 

 of bamboo, in the deeper valleys." 



Colonel Butler sends the following notes : — " The Eed Spur- 

 fowl is common all along the Aravallis. It is usually found singly 

 or in pairs, and breeds like the last species during the hot wearlier. 

 I have never seen the nest, but have often seen the chicks with 

 the old birds shortly after they have been hatched, in May and 

 June. 



" Belgaum, 18th March, 1880, two eggs slightly incubated brought 

 to me by a wood-cutter* There were more, but he could not 

 remember how many, and broke the remainder bringing them in. 

 Colour delicate creamy fawn, the eggs being much in shape and 

 colour like deep-coloured eggs of Ortygornis pondicerianus, but of 

 course considerably larger. 



" Belgaum, 19th February, 1880, shot a hen Spur-fowl containing 

 a perfect egg ready for extrusion." 



And he found a nest at Mahableshwur in the month of April 

 with seven eggs. 



Messrs, Davison and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, say : — 

 " Common along the ghats. Nest procured in March, near 

 Lanoli." 



" On the Nilghiris," says Davison, "the Spur-fowl breeds in the 

 same localities as the Grey Jungle-fowl and makes the same slight 

 nest. The breeding-seaseu, however, is in May atid June. I have 

 rarely found more than five eggs in a nest." 



Prom Kotaghery Miss Cockburn remarks : — " They form their 

 nests in woods on the ground among dry leaves, and generally 

 lay from six to ten eggs of a dingy white colour, which are to be 

 found in the months of February, March, and AprO." 



Mr. J. Darling, junior, found the nest of this Spur-fowl in the 

 "Wynaad and at Kartary in the Nilghiris. 



Mr. C. J. W. Taylor writes from Manzeerabad in Mysore : — 

 " Common. Eggs taken in April." 



The eggs are typically the same shape as a hen's, but much 

 elongated and cylindrical Sand-Grouse-shaped varieties are common. 

 All that I have seen have been entirely spotles>, sometimes almost 



