THE KOKLASS. 163 



only nests, according to my experience, from 6,000 to 9,000 

 feet. The breeding time lasts from the middle of April until 

 the middle of June, according to locality and season, but the 

 majority lay, in normal years, during the first-half of May. 



This species is, I think, unquestionably monogamous, and the 

 birds, I suspect, commonly pair for life. 



Little or no nest is made ; a circular depression is scratched 

 in the forest, in a thick shelter of undergrowth or under some 

 huge root or overhanging rock, and in this, unlined, or hut 

 sparsely lined with leaves, moss, or dry grass, or all three, the 

 eggs, from five to nine in number, are laid. 



Mr. Wilson remarked, many years ago, that " the female 

 lays seven eggs, nearly resembling those of the Moonal in 

 colour. They are hatched about the middle or end of May. She 

 makes her nest under the shelter of an overhanging tuft of 

 grass, or in a corner at the foot of a tree, and sometimes in the 

 hollow of a decayed trunk." 



Now writing to me from Garhwal, he says :— 

 " The Koklass breeds at elevations of from 5,000 to 10,000 or 

 11,000 feet, in coppices and forests with some underwood. The 

 nest is a hole scraped in the ground, and always sheltered 

 under a tuft of grass, or thick bush, or overhanging stone, and 

 it is sometimes made in the hollow at the foot of a big tree or 

 old trunk. As a rule, the number of eggs seems to be nine. 

 It begins to lay early in May, but some not till the end of the 

 month. Both birds are generally found with the young brood. 

 The male chicks of this and the Kalij get their proper plumage 

 the first year. By the middle of September they are pretty 

 well grown." 



The eggs are oval, more or less pointed towards the small 

 end, and vary a good deal in size and shape, as in the case of the 

 Pea- Fowl, some being much broader, and others more elongated 

 ovals. None that I have seen have been at all of the ovoido- 

 conoidal shape of the Francolins, and the Common Pheasant 

 {P. colchicus). The shape is more that of the true Partridge, 

 Galloperdix and Gallophasis. The ground colour is a rich pale 

 buff, and the eggs are, some densely and thickly speckled and 

 spotted, and others boldly but thinly blotched and splashed 

 with deep brownish red, which is dullest in the speckled, and 

 brightest and deepest in the blotched, varieties. 



The eggs of these two types vary more in appearance than 

 might perhaps be supposed from the above description. One 

 egg will have the whole ground as thickly speckled over as 

 possible with minute dots, not one of them much bigger than a 

 pin's point, and so closely set that a pin's head could nowhere 

 be placed between them ; while another egg will have at most 

 a dozen bold blotches, and three or four times that number of 

 good-sized spots, leaving comparatively large spaces of ground 

 colour utterly unspotted. It is impossible to conceive a richer 



