MALAYAN CRESTLESS FIREBACK 105 
would please me. To test the elasticity of such facts I led a Malay headman to assure 
me one day that the duvong mérah mata \aid but two eggs and in a tree! while on the 
following day, when I expressed disappointment that they deposited so few, he informed 
me in a burst of confidence that many of the hens laid five times that number! A female 
which I shot well to the southward was about to deposit an egg, while two others were 
well developed. The shell was plain buffy-white in colour, with very minute pits. 
The birds spend the night well up in trees, and when a native discovers such 
a roosting-place he is well-nigh certain of capturing the birds, as he will set scores of 
nooses in all the grassy runways leading to the tree, and the habit of returning night 
after night to the same place ensures their capture. They seem to feed at all times of the 
day, not only early in the morning and in the evening, as with most pheasants. In the 
game and buffalo trails they scratch like fowls, making a great noise and rustling of 
leaves. At such times, however, unlike the Himalayan pheasants, they seldom utter 
a sound, and every moment or two stand erect, motionless and silent, watching, 
listening, for the dangers which threaten every inmate of the jungle. It is said that 
the females are more numerous than the males, but this I cannot confirm. The sexes 
have been approximately equal in the covies or flocks which have come under my 
observation. 
The food which I have examined in the crops of the birds consists of animal and 
vegetable matter in about equal proportions. Termites, as usual, are very frequently 
eaten, ticks and grubs less often. Small hard berries, with but a thin skin over 
the very large stone, formed the food of two male birds; poor sustenance, one would 
think. 
They seem to be stupid birds, and I have never seen one in captivity which showed 
any relaxation of the shyness or unreasoning wildness of a feral bird. Those which 
I sent to America were the only ones of their genus to reach that country. In Europe 
they are better known, and some eighteen or twenty individuals have been received at 
the London Zoo. These, on an average, have lived about a year and eight months, 
although one bird remained in the collection for more than nine years. 
DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
ApuL_t Mate.—Forehead, crown, chin, throat and ear-coverts (the only cephalic 
feathered areas) dull dark brown, the feathers of the occiput often tipped with chestnut 
or with a slight whitish freckling. Neck and breast black, glossed with purplish blue. 
Mantle, upper back and scapulars similar, but freckled or irregularly banded with wavy 
bars of white; the gloss dies out gradually on the wing-coverts and secondaries, but 
the freckled barring persists strongly; the primaries are plain, dark brown. Visible 
area of lower back, consisting of a wide, terminal, disintegrated fringe, fiery bronze-gold, 
basally each feather changing abruptly into a narrow bronze-red and then to a white- 
freckled, steel-blue zone. Posteriorly the gold decreases rather suddenly and the 
bronze-red takes its place, the basal freckling disappearing at the same time, leaving 
the clear steel-blue. The deep metallic red or maroon persists strongly up to the 
longest upper tail-coverts, which are wholly dull steel-blue. The tail is uniform pale 
rufous-buff, with the basal part of the feathers black. The sides of the body, flanks, 
VOL. II P 
