THE COMMON PEA-FOWL. 9 1 



seen ten and twelve chicks following one hen ; but these, no 

 doubt, are amalgamated broods, for I have never found more 

 than six eggs in one nest (I believe, however, that they occasion- 

 ally lay up to seven or eight), and sometimes only three 

 or four. 



" Three years ago, a chaprassi, who, from long practice, had 

 become somewhat arboreal in his habits, brought me three fresh 

 Pea-Fowl's eggs from an old nest of Gyps bengalensis. Shortly 

 afterwards I saw the nest, which was situated on a huge 

 horizontal bough of a Burgot, in the centre of some Dhak 

 jungle, and on which all the Pea- Fowl in the neighbourhood were 

 in the habit of roosting. I have every reason to believe my 

 chaprassi, because he had no object in wishing to deceive me, 

 and my own experience is in favour of these birds laying at 

 high elevations (the same remark is applicable to a good many 

 gallinaceous birds), for I have on several occasions taken their 

 eggs from the roofs of huts in deserted villages, high mounds, 

 and from the tops of masonry mosques on which rank vegetation 

 grew to the height of two or three feet." 



From the Nilgiris Miss Cockburn writes : — " The Peahen lays 

 from ten to fifteen eggs and forms a nest by scratching a slight 

 place in the ground, and gathering a few dry leaves and sticks. 

 The eggs are generally found in June and July, and are a dingy 

 buffy white." 



The eggs are typical Rasorial ones, much like gigantic Guinea- 

 fowls' eggs, with thick, very strong and glossy shells, closely 

 pitted over their whole surface with minute pores, which are, 

 however, more deeply indented and more conspicuous in some 

 specimens than others. In shape, they vary much ; some are 

 very broad, some decidedly elongated ovals, so that some more 

 resemble in shape an English Pheasant's eggs, and others are 

 more like a Turkey's : all are more or less pointed towards the 

 small end. The colour, within certain limits, also varies much ; 

 some are almost pure white, others are a rich cafe an lait or 

 reddish buff; others, again, are dingy yellowish buff, but typically 

 they are a pale pinkish cafe an lait colour. Occasionally speci- 

 mens are met with thickly freckled with pale reddish brown, 

 feeble reproductions of the Moonal's eggs ; but the vast majority 

 are entirely unspotted. 



In length they vary from 2*55 to 3*0, and in breadth from 

 1*92 to 2'2 ; but the average of forty eggs is 274 by 2*05. 



Males, measure. — Length, 80 to 92 ; to end of true tail only, 40 

 to 46 ; the train in full breeding plumage projects from 40 to 

 48 inches (and, I have been assured, even 54 inches) beyond the 

 end of the true tail ; wing, 18 to 19 ; tail from vent, 18 to 21 ; 

 tarsus, 5-5 to 575 ; bill from gape, 1*9. Weight, 9 to n^lbs. 



