210 THE VERMICELLATED PHEASANT. 



Mr. Oates says, in regard to their nidification in the country 

 between Thayetmyo and Tounghoo : — 



" The female makes no nest, but chooses a hollow on a bank- 

 side, generally at the foot of a bamboo clump. The dead 

 leaves, which have accumulated to the depth of three or four 

 inches, are hollowed out by the bird, not purposely, I think, but 

 merely by the pressure of the bird's body. The first nest I 

 found in 1871 contained six fresh eggs. This was on the 24th 

 March. The second nest, found on the 8th April, contained 

 seven eggs, slightly incubated. 



"A third nest, found on the 15th April 1873, contained seven 

 eggs, hard-set. The colour is a rich cream, with numerous small 

 dots of chalky white." 



All the eggs that we have obtained are of the usual hen's-egg 

 shape ; they are of course unspotted, and vary from a pale yel- 

 lowish to a warm pinkish cafe an lait colour. The shell, though 

 fine, is very full of pores, and these in some eggs being filled 

 with a whitish chalky substance, give them the effect of being 

 stippled all over with white specks. None of the eggs that I 

 have seen have had any very perceptible gloss, and as a rule 

 they seem to be, for game birds of this class, very dull eggs. 



The eggs vary from i'8i to 2*03 in length, and from 1*4 to 

 1*52 in width, but the average of nearly thirty eggs is 1*97 by 

 1*46. 



Specimens measured in the flesh varied as follows : — 



Males. — Length, 25*5 to 30*0; expanse, 2975 to 3275 ; tail 

 from vent, ico to 13-5 ; wing, 9*25 to 11*5 ; tarsus, 3*0 to 

 3*62 ; bill from gape, 1*32 to 1*55. Weight, 2*5 to 3 lbs. 



Females. — Length, 20* 1 to 24*0 ; expanse, 2475 to 28*0 ; tail 

 from vent, yS to IO'O ; wing, 8'5 to 9*5 ; tarsus, 2*9 to 3-4 ; bill 

 from gape, 1*35 to 1-5. Weight, 2 to 2*5 lbs. 



The legs and feet were generally pinkish fleshy or pinkish 

 brown ; sometimes a sort of bluish horny or plumbeous brown. 



In the male, the spurs are dark at the base, whitish horny at 

 tip. In the males, the bills are pale bluish or greenish horny, 

 darkest at base. In the female, pale horny brown. The irides 

 seem to vary a great deal ; some were brown, of different shades, 

 usually more or less tinged with red ; others are noted as very 

 pale pink, or even fleshy white ; in fact, all the soft parts in this 

 species seem to vary very greatly, doubtless according to age, 

 season, and sex. In both sexes the facial skin is blood red 

 and the exposed portion of the eyelids pale plumbeous or 

 ashy blue. The cere is greyish in the male, blackish in the 

 female. 



" In the chicken from the egg" says Mr. Oates, " the top of the 

 head is fulvous, albescent on the forehead. There is a stripe from 

 the base of the upper mandible to the eye, also a black line from 



