THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 335 



" An inch nearer, another leaf cleared away and I saw there 

 *' was but one bird. 



■'It was a splendid male, digging vigorously and almost con - 

 "tinuously with its beak, working round in a circle so that I 

 " saw it turn its breast, sidss and back. I watched it for five 

 '• minutes, when it turned, without apparent cause, but not from 

 *" fright, and disappeared into the low marshy tangle behind. 



■' As quietly as I could lift my arm and pull up my gun from 

 ■' where it was dragging behind me, I fired at the still moving 

 "' ^tems, and listened for some hint of the efiect. Not a sound 

 " came forth. 



" I clambered up to where the bird had stood, rushed into the 

 '■ underbrush and almost stepped upon the pheasant as it lay 

 "six feet from the opening. As I leaned down, trembling with 

 " excitement, two living bombs burst from the ground a few 

 " feet away, — a pair of hens or young males — and in a fraction 

 "of a second were out of sight." 

 Unfortunately Beebe, in spite of his long description of many 

 pages, does not say at what height he found these pheasants, but as 

 he mentions the fact that he continuously passed through wild 

 bananas during his hunt for them it must have been at a compara- 

 tively low level, and his whole account of the country would shew 

 it to be of a nature consistent only with tropical humid forests under 

 rather than over 5,000 feet. 



Capt. F. M. Bailey met with this pheasant on the upper Dibang 

 Valley. He -^Tites : — 



" Common in the upper Dibang Valley and on both sides of 

 the Yong Yap-La. Cocks weighed 5 lbs. in May. It is very 

 noisy in the evenings. These birds when chased by a dog refused 

 to fly until nearly caught when they would fly into a tree and 

 ' remain there Avhile the dog barked below. Our dog actually 

 caught one. They were mostly found in small flocks of two or 

 three individuals. Po Me Monal Pheasants are found, though 

 no specimens were collected. It appears that both L. sdateri 

 and another similar bird with a crest of long feathers are found 

 together. This is probably L. lliuysii but possibly L. 

 refulgens and is called Tse by the Pobas. Monal Pheasants 

 were also seen on the Se La and other places near Tawang, 

 but no specimens collected." 



LOPHOPHORUS L'HUYSII. 



Lopliophorus Vhuysii, Verreaiix and St. Hiliare, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (2) iii, 

 p. 223, pi. ; (1866) (Moupin); id., iv., p. 706 (1867); Sclater, P. Z. S., (1868), p. i., 

 pi. i. ; id. Ibis, (1870), p. 297 (Tatsienlu) ; Grey, Handl. Birdsii.,p. 261 (1870) ; 

 Swinhoe, P. Z. S.; (1871), p. 399; David, Xouv. Arch. Mus. de Paris, vii., (1871) 

 p. ii; Elliot, Mong. Phas. i, pi. 19 (1872); Gould, B. Asia vii, p. 54 (1873); 



3 



