694 Notes on the Nidifi cation of Indian Birds. [Dec. 



were neatly cut off as if by a knife, showing that the young ones had 

 escaped, and singular enough I had the day before captured the whole 

 brood, but knowing the almost impossibility of rearing them, had allow- 

 ed them again to go free. The diameter of the egg is 2 X 1 T \ ins. 



In Mr. Gray's Catalogue of the Collection presented to the British 

 Museum by Mr. Hodgson, this and Phasianus Hamiltonii are given as 

 synonymes of Gallophasis leucomelanos. In this there appears to be 

 some degree of error, for the species are distinct. Mr. Blyth in episto- 

 la, writes that " there are" 4 true races and 2 hybrids. Of the former, 

 one is albocristatus ; crest rarely very white, the white on the rump 

 always well developed, and found exclusively westward of Nipal. Me* 

 lanotus (Blyth), has black crest, and no white on rump ; common at 

 Darjeeling ; and the Nepalese leucomelanos is certainly a cross between 

 these two. Cuvieri of Assam, Sylhet, &c. has white on rump, but under- 

 pays wholly shining black ; and this has produced a mixed race with 

 lineatus of Arracan."* If such be the case, the name of leucomelanos, 

 belonging only to a hybrid, and not to a true species, must give place 

 to Gould's name of albocristatus. Phasianus Hamiltonii of Gray's 

 111. Ind. Zool. looks very like an immature male of the present species, 

 but being from Nipal, is probably an immature hybrid. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Mussooree and Simla, we have only Euplocomus (Gallopha- 

 sis) albocristatus (verus) the others all occurring more to the eastward, 

 as correctly observed by Mr. Blyth. The long white crest is seldom or 

 perhaps never found except in fully mature birds, it being generally of a 

 dirty or dusky hue like that figured in Gould's Century ; every place 

 however is now so thoroughly poached over by native shikarrees, that an 

 old white-crested bird is extremely rare. 



No. 43. — " Pucrasia macrolopha." (Gray's Cat.) 



Phasianus pucrasse. (Gray. Griff. An. King.) 

 Gallophasis pucrasia. (Hodg. Gray.) 



For the eggs of this species I am also indebted to a friend who took 

 them in June from the ground, where there was no other symptom of a 

 nest than a slight scratching away of the leaves and grass. The eggs 

 were 5 in number, of a sandy brown, sprinkled over with specks, and 



* Since the above was written, I have seen the series of specimens of these birds 

 preserved in the Society's museum, and fully concur in Mr. Blyth's opinion. 



