264 THE CEYLON SPUR-FOWL. 



ing on the wing at the elevation it had attained, it instantly 

 dropped into a small copse, out of which it was with much 

 difficulty hunted, when it darted through an open door into 

 the kitchen and concealed itself behind a box. 



" The males are very pugnacious, and in their manner of 

 fighting remind me of the game cock, depressing and elevating 

 the head, imitating each other's actions, &c, &c." 



As TO THEIR nidification, Mr. Hart says : — 



" The nesting season of this Spur-Fowl is not restricted to 

 a limited period. I have found the eggs myself in February, 

 May and October ; it lays four to six eggs of a yellowish cafe an 

 lait colour, in a dense jungle or thick forest under some promi- 

 nent root of a huge tree, or sheltered by an overhanging bush 

 or rock." 



Captain Legge again remarks : — 



" The nesting season of this species would seem to extend over 

 a considerable period, as I have had fledged young brought me 

 at the latter end of May, and have taken the eggs myself on the 

 7th July in the same district, the Southern Province. 



"The nest is situated in the forest or in thick jungle, under 

 the shelter of a rock or near the projecting root of a large 

 tree. It is merely a slight hollow scraped in the ground, with 

 one or two dead leaves in the bottom to serve as lining. I 

 am unable to state what the average number of eggs in the 

 clutch is, as so little is known of the nesting of this bird, — the 

 eggs in my own collection being the only specimens I believe 

 in the possession of any collector ; they were taken from the 

 same nest and are two in number. The natives inform me 

 that they lay four very often, and as I had four young ones 

 brought me once with the old bird, I dare say their information 

 is correct. They are oval in form and rather large in diameter 

 for their length. My two specimens measured respectively 

 1*42 and 1*43 by ri2. 



" They are of an uniform cream colour, one of them having 

 small white calcareous polished specks all over it similar to 

 those seen on the eggs of the Cochin-China fowls at times. 

 The old bird was sitting on the nest at the time I found it, 

 and flew off with great swiftness. This I attribute; however, to 

 my having come on the nest suddenly, otherwise she would 

 doubtless, as most birds which nest on the ground do in similar 

 cases, have left it stealthily." 



Eggs sent me from Ceylon are moderately elongated ovals, 

 very similar to those of the other Spur-Fowls, of a pale cafe au 

 lait colour, -very smooth and fairly glossy, and varying from 1*44 

 to 155 in length, and from 1*09 to 118 in breadth. 



