THE GAME BIRD^ OF INDIA. 5 



none are likely to be taken before the end of May, and more in 

 the early half of June. The latest date I have recorded is the 

 3rd of July for incubated eggs. 



Owing to the fact that Europeans do all they can to prevent the 

 eggs of this bird being taken, and, vs^herever they are sufficiently 

 numerous to make it worth while, do their best to preserve these 

 pheasants, there is very little on record about their nidification. 



In addition to this, the fact that they nearly always breed in 

 the wildest and most precipitous hills makes their nests and eggs 

 very hard to find, and consequently full clutches of Cheers' eggs 

 are very rare in collections. The nests are very rough affairs, 

 merely a collection of leaves and rubbish in some hollow, either 

 natural, or scratched out by the birds themselves. It is placed in 

 amongst bushes,bracken or grass at the foot of, or on the side of, 

 some steep hill or cliff, and almost invariably in very broken 

 gi-ound. Hume found his three nests at the foot of almost vertical 

 cliffs, " broken into ledges and steps and studded with down-trail- 

 ing bushes, tufts of grass and, growing here and there out of some 

 larger cleft or wider ledge, a few stunted trees." This description 

 appears to be very typical of the normal breeding and nesting 

 haunts of the Cheer, and the few details I have been able to secure 

 from sporting friends simply confirm what Hume has written. It 

 is interesting to note that Hume took this bird's nest at Nagthiba 

 as long ago as 1861, and that only three years ago, 1915, I 

 received from a friend a pair of eggs taken from the same place. 



The cock birds are monogamous, a fact which has been long 

 known, for Wilson recorded that " both male and female keep 

 with the young brood, and seem very solicitous for their welfare." 

 In 1916, Mr. A. Wimbush of the Forest Service, came on a very 

 interesting instance of the cock Cheer's care for his family. He 

 writes in epistola : — 



" This morning when out after Gural in the Jaunsar 

 " division of the Dehra Dun District at an elevation of about 

 " 8,000 feet, I came suddenly upon a pair of Cheer Pheasants 

 " with a brood of chicks about one or two days old. 



" The parent birds which appeared to have been sitting 

 "touching one another, as though each covering half the 

 " chicks, waited until I was some ten or twelve yards away, 

 " and then started a most lively demonstration. 



" The chicks ran in all direction, one coming straight 

 " towards me, and the two old birds wdth tails spread, wings 

 " arched and neck feathers ruffled ran backwards and forwards 

 " in front of me, clucking just like an old hen does if a dog 

 " interferes with her chicks. 



" The most interesting point was that the chief demonstrator 

 "was the cock bird. Without the least sign of fear he 



