Pheasant's. The eggs are always glossy, sometimes highly so,
and the surface is generally very finely and closely pitted with
minute pores like those of the Pea-Fowl's egg on a diminutive
scale. In some specimens these are pretty conspicuous, but in
the majority they arc only noticeable on close inspection, and
in some they appear almost entirely wanting. The eggs vary
in colour from a very pale creamy or buffy white to a rich rcddisli
buff, even richer and redder than any specimens of the Pea-
Fowl's eggs that I have yet seen ; though such may doubtless
occur, I have not yet seen a specimen freckled or mottled as
Pea-Fowl's eggs occasionally are, though I have seen some
pretty thickly speckled with minute white spots.
In length the eggs vary from 185 to 2'03, and in breadth from
I'25 to i'52 ; but the average of fifty eggs is ro4 by i'44,
T H E FOLLOWING are the dimensions, &c, of the White-Crested
Kalij :—
Maks.—Length, 24"o to 290 ; expanse, 2875 to 32^0 ; wing,
87 to 100 ; tail from vent, 102 to I3'0 ; tarsus, 29 to 3'i ; bill
from gape, 13 to 155. Weight, 2lbs. to 2 lbs. 6 ozs.
Females.—Length, 20'0 to 230 ; expanse, 24^5 to 2y2 ; wing,
8-oto 8-3 ; tail from vent, 7 8 to 9-0 ; tarsus, 2'6 to 2'8 ; bill from
gape, L 2 to i'3. Weight, 1 lb. 4 ozs. to 2 lbs. 4 ozs.
The irides are orange brown; the bare eye-patch bright scarlet
to deep crimson, dotted over with numerous tiny tufts of abortive
black feathers ; the bill greenish white, dusky at tip ; the
legs and feet livid white, with a purplish or brownish tinge,
varying to pale grey brown, often with an olive tinge.
T H E PLATE gives a tolerable idea of the bird, though neither
bills nor legs and feet are quite correctly coloured, while the male
seems to have lost his own tail and borrowed one from a neighbour
when he sat for his portrait.