THE BLACK-BREASTED KALIJ.
a shrill cheep, cheep, cheep, and very often settle on the trees.
Their flesh is very white when cooked, but greatly inferior to
that of the Common Jungle Fowl. A good cock weighs about
3lbs.; the hen is slightly smaller.
" They retire deeper into the jungle to breed, and the young
arc hatched early in May. I have never seen their nest."
Mr. R. A. Clark, of the Mynadhar Tea Garden in Cachar, says:
" These birds are very common here, keeping to well-wooded hills
and ravines. They go about in pairs, though parties of three and
four are often met with, and on one occasion I saw a party of
eleven ; they breed in the dense forests, making a nest on the
ground. I have never myself seen a nest, but the Rookies have
repeatedly brought mc clutches of eggs, never more than four
in each nest, which I have repeatedly set under domestic fowls ;
the chicks were often hatched, hut never could be reared.
" The male birds are used as decoys by the Rookies, who
fix nooses in the form of a square enclosing the decoy, (which
is tied to a peg by the leg), and watching from a little distance
secure any bird that may be noosed.
" I once witnessed a fight between a male Kalij and a Jungle
Cock (G. fcrnigineus) for the possession of a white-ant hill
from which the winged termites were issuing. I watched the
contest for a quarter of an hour, by which time both birds were
exhausted, when the Kalij lied, leaving the Jungle Cock in
possession. On another occasion I came across a pair of
male Kalij fighting amongst a lot of ferns ; they were so taken
up with their own affairs that they did not notice my having
approached to within 15 yards ; I let them go on for ten minutes,
and then went up and caught both ; they were quite exhausted;
the feathers from the head and neck- had all been knocked off,
and the latter was bleeding in both birds.
" The adult birds arc tough, but the pullets are very fair
eating."
Mr. Cripps writes :—
" The northern part of the District of Sylhct is covered with
low ' teelahs' or hillocks, between which run small brooks, the
whole being overgrown with dense tree, bamboo, and cane
jungle, forming dark, damp retreats, such as arc the favourite
resorts of this species.
" Here they scratch about amongst the fallen leaves for
insects, and towards evening and in the early morning stray into
any adjacent patches of cultivation, or arc to be found feeding
about the roadsides where these lie within the forests.
"Although one may now and then shoot a bird or two, their
retiring disposition and the nature of the haunts they affect
equally prevent their affording much sport in the localities
in which alone I have observed them. To the same causes
arc due my ignorance of their habits. In their wild state one
gets only a momentary glimpse of them, and though the eggs
THE BLACK-BREASTED KALIJ. 199
hatch readily under domestic hens, the chicks somehow cannot
be reared, and adults confined, as I have seen many in Sylhct
remain to the last as wild as when captured, destroying their
plumage, and ultimately, generally, wearing themselves out in
their persistent and unintelligent efforts to escape.
" The Khasias, who call them ' Mote-oral snare numbers with
horse-hair nooses.
" On no occasion have I seen more than four birds together ;
but they are generally seen in pairs."
Later, writing from Khowrang in Dibrugarh, he says :—•
" Here the Do-reck, as the Assamese call it, is very common
and far more accessible than in Sylhct. Morning and evening
the birds are to be seen feeding on all the roads and paths, and
allowing a near approach if the sportsman stoops low and
advances sharply.
" Their food consists, I find, of berries, grain extracted from
the droppings of horses, all kinds of tender shoots and worms."
T H I S srEClES lays mostly in April and May, but nests may be
found towards the close of March and well into June.
My friend Mr. Cripps found a nest on the 29th March 1875
in Sylhet, and caught the female sitting on it. " The nest,"
he says, " was composed of a heap of dried leaves, a foot in
diameter and about six inches in height ; the egg cavity was
5 by 4 ; no lining ; the eggs were four in number and perfectly
fresh ; the site chosen was at the foot of a large tree standing
on a piece of fiat land between two hillocks."
Again, writing from Khowang, he remarks :—•
" On the 22nd March 1879, while cutting forest for charcoal
burning, I came across two fresh eggs. The nest was made of
dry leaves, which the bird had scraped into a hollow in the ground
at the root of a tree, and within six feet of a jungle path, along
which my coolies had been passing for days. On that day the
men were felling trees all round, and the hen bird did not fly
off until the axe was laid on to the tree at the root of which
her nest was. There was no lining. The ground around was
low and damp."
The only eggs that I have seen of this species were those
sent me from these nests by Mr. Cripps ; they are of the usual
Kalij type, very regular, rather broad ovals (in fact of the
usual hen's egg shape), with rather strong and coarse shells,
very conspicuously pitted all over with minute pores and with
a faint gloss. In colour they vary from pale buff to a warm rich
café ait lait.
In length these few eggs vary from i'8 to ra. ; and in breadth
from 145 to 1'5 ; but, doubtless, a good series would show
much greater variations.