48 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 
two other favourite items of diet in the order of their abundance. Bamboo shoots, 
earthworms, small centipedes and moths are also eaten freely. 
The breeding season in Upper Burma corresponds to that in other parts of the 
range—April and May, with delayed broods extending into June. The nest is a hollow 
in the ground, usually at the foot of a tree, the eggs sometimes laid on the moss of the 
forest floor or again on a layer of dead leaves. Four to six eggs are laid, but two to three 
seems to be the usual number of young reared to maturity. The eggs show considerable 
variation, from pale buffy white to a rich café au lait, and even a still warmer, redder tone. 
Almost all are speckled with dots of white calcareous matter, which are more conspicuous 
on the darker specimens. They are usually a rather broad oval, smooth and somewhat 
glossy, and measure from 35 to 38 mm. in breadth, and from 46 to 52 mm. in length, with 
an average of 36 by 49 mm. 
Horsfield’s Kaleege is not uncommonly exported from India, and breeds readily in 
confinement. They live well, and in the case of seven individuals in the London Zoo 
the average length of life was almost four years, while one bird lived for nine. 
Stuart Baker probably knows the Black-breasted Kaleege better than any living 
white man, and also knows how to put his knowledge upon paper, and I cannot refrain 
from quoting, from his account in the 1917 volume of the ‘‘ Journal of the Bombay Natural 
History Society,” both his description of the haunts of the bird and of his most successful 
day’s hunt. ‘The nest is nearly always placed in forest, and the class of forest most 
often chosen is the damp evergreen forest met with everywhere along the foothills and 
broken ground bordering the higher ranges of the Himalayas. Inside these mighty 
forests, composed of an endless variety of trees, mostly tall and mostly covered with a 
luxuriant motley of parasites of all kinds, but also with a plentiful undergrowth of canes, 
brambles and other plants, the Black-breasted Kaleege has its favourite haunts. 
Occasionally in their inner depths one may come across tiny green glades in the general 
dense undergrowth. Here the vivid green moss seems even more green than elsewhere, 
forming a springy carpet; ferns grow here and there over its surface, and the sun only 
comes to it in dappled, quivering patches through the branches high overhead. Such 
spots are much beloved by the Kalij Pheasant, and many a time have I come across its 
nest in the bushes immediately surrounding them. Comparatively open spots of this 
description attract numerous insects, and I am afraid it is these, rather than their special 
natural beauty, which induces the pheasants to commence their domestic duties within 
easy reach of them. The nest itself is more often than not placed in some tangle of 
bushes, briars or canes at the foot of one of the bigger trees, well concealed from 
inquisitive friends and enemies, and in some position less moist than its surroundings. 
Ravines with mossy, fern-covered sides are often selected, and in such places a rock or 
boulder may form its principal shelter. As a work of art the nest is a failure: a heap 
of leaves and rubbish scratched into a heap, with a rough depression in the middle for the 
eggs, is the limit attained, and Mother Nature herself, and not the birds, is responsible for 
all the collecting that has been done. The great buttresses of the cotton-tree (Bombax 
malabarica), which project on all sides from the main trunk, form recesses into which 
the winds from every quarter blow their quota of fallen leaves and other oddinents, and 
thus become splendid places in which birds may lay their eggs, and many a nest have I 
seen, both of this pheasant and of other game-birds, in these cosy corners. 
