WHITE-CRESTED KALEEGE 21 
quantity of debris than usual, the nest measured nearly a foot across, four inches deep 
outside, while the central depression was six inches wide and nearly two inches deep. 
When the ground is covered with a thick carpet of dead leaves, no additional matter is 
gathered, or again, where a slight hollow, either natural or scratched in the ground by the 
birds, is utilized, a mere lining skin of grass or leaves is present. The situation of the 
nest is varied, and conforms only to very general requirements. The more usual locations 
are as follows: 
1.—Placed under the shelter of tufts of large, overhanging ferns ; coarse, tall grass, or 
the slender dwarf ringal or hill-bamboo, on rather open hillsides. 
2.—Among sapling growths with plenty of underbrush, close under the shelter of an 
overhanging stone, thick, low bush or tuft of grass. 
One unusual situation is noted by Captain Cock, who says that the eggs are laid, “as 
a rule, on the ground under a rock or bush; but I have taken a nest on a large bough of 
a tree, in a hollow on the upper side of which the eggs were placed.” There seems 
absolutely no significance in this as hinting of a tendency toward arboreal habits like 
those of the Tragopans, as the Geznaeus group of pheasants is essentially a terrestrial 
one in every way. 
The experience of many observers shows that the number of eggs ranges from eight 
to fourteen, with the more usual number about nine. The hen incubates for a period of 
about twenty-six days, and during this period her dependence upon her leaf-brown 
coloration is almost absolute. A dog may approach, and detect her, not by scent, but 
by blundering upon the sitting bird, and may seize her before she will leave. Several 
writers and sportsmen testify to having approached with great care and actually placed 
their hand upon and caught the hen as she sat rigid—held to her home by her mother 
love, a performance, let us hope, which was followed by the setting free immediately 
of the too-trusting bird. The fact is of great interest, however, as emphasizing the 
unconscious faith which the bird places in its hues of brown and buff. The cock bird is 
never far away, and when the hen is threatened by a dog or other animal, the male will 
fly into a tree and cackle loudly. 
At the end of the long period of incubation the chicks emerge, escaping through the 
neatly-severed top of the egg, and leave the nest almost at once. When the brood leaves 
the vicinity, the male at once attaches himself to his family, and during the period of 
growth of the chicks the two parents are invariably found close together with them. 
Later, when the wings of the young birds allow them to fly up into the branches, the 
entire family roosts together in the same tree, and not until the birds of the year are 
full-sized do they drift apart from their parents and begin to forage for themselves. It 
is now that the young pheasants of several families seem to feel a drawing toward one 
another, and although they usually roost singly, they may often be found feeding 
together or working through the undergrowth in company in the daytime. 
Unusually late broods which have been observed are unquestionably due to the first 
nest having been destroyed by hail or monkeys or some other agency, and not to the fact 
that this pheasant ever rears two broods in one season. 
The eggs are regular ovals, only moderately elongated, and quite pointed at one end, 
bearing in shape a closer resemblance to the eggs of the European partridge and peahen 
