THE CHEER, 175 



strange to say, my weekly, and sometimes bi-weekly, visits never 

 had the effect of driving them away, and what is more, in 

 October i860, when I again visited the place, I found my friends 

 in their old locality, and got three brace then and there. 



I found another nest with several eggs late in May, in a very 

 similar situation, on Nagtiber, at, I suppose, an elevation of 

 about 6,000 feet, and a third, containing four eggs, which I took 

 very early in May, a few miles from Juggutsook, in the upper 

 valley of the Beas. This too was similarly situated. 



Mr. Wilson tells us that " the female makes her nest in 

 the grass or amongst low bushes, and lays from nine to 

 fourteen eggs of a dull white, and rather small for so 

 large a bird. They are hatched about the end of May or 

 beginning of June. Both male and female keep with the young 

 brood and seem very solicitous for their welfare." 



The eggs are, as remarked by " Mountaineer," very small for 

 the size of the bird. They are of a very pale stone colour or a 

 dingy slightly cafe ate lait tinted-white. They are almost devoid 

 of markings, but towards one or other end many specimens 

 exhibit small, somewhat pale, brownish red specks and spots ; 

 and one or two that I have seen have had a good number of 

 very minute specks of the same colour scattered about the surface. 

 They altogether want the warm cafe au lait tint of those of 

 the Moonal, Koklass, and the Kalij, and laid beside these eggs 

 they seem to have a slightly greenish tint. In shape they 

 resemble an ordinary hen's egg, and are not at all, as might 

 have been expected, like those of P. colchicus. The shell has 

 a slight gloss, but it exhibits throughout the minute pits or pores 

 so characteristic of rasorial eggs, in a much less degree no 

 doubt than those of the Peacock and others, but in a greater 

 degree than those of the Koklass. 



They appear very uniform in size ; at any rate the specimens 

 I have measured only varied from 2^05 to 2'22 in length, and 

 from 1 '47 to 1*56 in breadth. 



In this species the males are much larger and heavier than 

 the females. 



Males. — Length, 34/0 to 40*0 * ; expanse, 29*0 to 31*0 ; wing, 

 9/6 to 10*4 ; tail from vent, 20'o to 23*0 ; tarsus, 2'8 to 2*95 ; bill 

 from gape, 1*35 to 1-45. Weight, 2 lbs. 10 ozs. to 3 lbs. 7 ozs., 

 and, I believe, to nearly 4 lbs., though I have no note by me 

 of the fact. 



Females. —Length, 24-0 to 29*5 ; expanse, 26*0 to 29*0 ; wing, 

 8'8 to 9-5 ; tail from vent, 13*5 to 15-5 ; tarsus, 2*5 to 2-65 ; 

 bill from gape, V2 to 1*35. Weight, 2 lbs to 2lbs 12 ozs. 



* Jerdon, quoting Wilson, says 46, and tail to 28. I have never met with such birds 

 (38 is, I think, the average length of fine Cocks), but Wilson is sure to be right, and 

 exceptional birds of these huge dimensions must occur, 



