208 G. H. Gurney—The Breeding of the Chinese Bamboo Partridge


excited behaviour of the male we concluded she was sitting ; a few

days later the nest was located behind some faggots, concealed by

long grass, the hen sitting tight, the cock generally on guard in the

near vicinity of the nest, very ferocious now, and dashing at any other !

bird that ventured too near. Five eggs were laid : they were of a

creamy white colour, thinly spotted with brown spots which were

larger and more numerous at the big end of the egg. The eggs hatched

on 7th June and in a very few days the young were following the old

ones round the aviary, catching flies and searching for insects in the

grass ; they were beautiful little things, richly marked and spotted

with deep brown. Luckily the weather was then fine and warm,

and the young throve apace ; we fed them for the first ten days entirely

on ants’ eggs, but they gradually got on to the ordinary biscuit meal

and egg food all the gallinaceous birds have here. Small mealworms

were eagerly devoured, and it was a pretty sight to watch the young

ones rush to their parents to be fed on some tit-bit which the latter

had found. The brood was generally divided, half the young ones

going with the male, the remainder with the hen. Now, 1st August,

the young ones are nearly as big as their parents ; and the hen has

laid another clutch of seven eggs which have been put under a Bantam.


As I was not quite certain of the identification of this species I sent

the male up to the South Kensington Museum, where it was identified

by Dr. Percy Lowe from the series of skins there. He writes “ Your

Partridge is without any doubt Bambusicola thoracica thoracica of

Temminck.”


An interesting account of this Partridge is given by Mr. K. Swinhoe

in The Ibis for 1863, vol. v, pp. 400-1. He writes : “ A pair of

immature birds (B. thoracica) were brought to me on the 16th August,

1861. They uttered a continuous loud, fowl-like scream . . . This

and the Foochow Bamboo-fowl are of very similar habits and notes.

This species is found throughout all the hills of Formosa, generally

scattered about the bush, never in coveys. It is very pugilistic, the

males and females both singing the same loud cry, beginning with

hilly-hilly, and ending rapidly with he-put-hwai, which is so powerfully

uttered that it may be heard at a great distance. They are not easily

flushed, lying so close to the ground that you may walk over the spot



