194 THE BLACK-BACKED KALIJ. 



The breeding season lasts for several months. 



Quite low down, at elevations of two thousands feet or so, they 

 lay as early as the end of March ; at four or five thousand 

 feet eggs may be looked for about the middle of May, and 

 towards the higher limits, 6,000 to 7,000 feet, they lay in June, 

 and eggs, much incubated it is true, have been found as late 

 as the end of July. 



They seem never to make a nest ; at any rate, of the dozen 

 odd clutches reported to me, none were found in any constructed 

 nest ; three were found in little clumps of grass at the feet of 

 tea-bushes, and the rest amidst dead leaves and moss, a little 

 scratched away, under the cover of bushes or tufts of ferns cr 

 at the base of overhanging rocks. 



On some tea-gardens, the eggs are unfortunately constantly 

 found by the coolies and destroyed ; the whole Tarai, and the 

 whole of the exterior hills, are becoming a sea of tea ; the 

 Black-backed Kalij is not nearly so common in the interior 

 as in the outer hills ; and I expect that, within a few years, this 

 species will become comparatively rare. 



Ten seems to be the full number of eggs ; at least this is the 

 largest clutch reported to me. 



The eggs are, of course, of the regular game fowl type, varying 

 very much in size and shape (some being much broader, others 

 more oval) as also in tint, some being more gamey than others. 

 Colonel Tickell, however, could never have seen the eggs laid by 

 ivild birds, when he described them as white. This they never 

 are, but they riug the changes from pale pinky creamy, and 

 pale cafeati lait, to a rich cafe with little milk in it. 



A nest obtained near Darjeeling in July contained six eggs 

 of the usual Kalij type, that is to say, broad regular ovals, but 

 little compressed towards the small end, of a decided cafe an 

 lait tinge ; the shell strong and hard ; the surface everywhere 

 covered with minute pits, but withal fairly glossy. 



Of two nests obtained at the close of March by Mr. Gammie 

 at elevations of 2,000 and 3,000 feet, in the neighbourhood 

 of Darjeeling, the eggs of the one were a rich pinky cafe a? 1 lait 

 (one of them showing a good deal of pure white mottling), 

 and of the other a rather warm buffy stone colour. 



The eggs seem to vary from 179 to fully 2 inches in length, 

 and from 1*4 to 1-54 in breadth ; but the average of a large 

 series is 1*91 by 1*47. 



I HAVE measured but few of these birds, and my figures 

 therefore will probably need additions. 



Males. — Length, 2ro to 25*0; expanse, 26*5 to 29*0 ; wing, 

 8-9 to 9-5 ; tail from vent, 9*5 to 12*3 ; tarsus, 3*05 to 3-2 ; bill 

 from gape, 1*28 to 1-36. Weight, 2 lbs. 6 ozs. to 2 lbs 12 ozs. 



