714 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL RIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



Beebe states that the cock birds only utter this challenge for 

 a very brief period, perhaps two weeks, but this is, I think, a 

 wrong estimate, and I am told by good observers that a cock com- 

 mences to trumpet before the mating season, and continues, though 

 perhaps not so regularly, to call after the hens have laid. Certainly 

 it may be heard from early April until late in June. 



As with so many game-birds, the challenge is usually made from 

 an elevated perch, often comparatively high up in a tree ; then 

 when the gauntlet thrown down is accepted, the two birds slowly 

 approach one another, each booming as they make their way 

 towards their rival. What happens when they meet, no one knows 

 for no one has yet seen the possible combat, or, the equally 

 possible result, the mutual showing off, ending in both birds 

 slinking away. 



They are much persecuted by the Hill men, who trap and shoot 

 them, both for their plumage and their flesh. The favourite form 

 of trap is the usual little hedge or fence with well-noosed gaps at 

 intervals, through which the birds pass rather than take the slight 

 trouble involved in flying over the obstruction. The birds Avhich 

 are shot are nearlj;^ always obtained by calling during the breeding 

 season, and, of course, in this way, it is only the males which can 

 be enticed within shooting distance. The Tibetans, Garhwalis, 

 and Bhutias are all adepts at calling these birds up by imitating 

 their challenge cries, and if a male is wathin hearing, their success 

 in luring him up is practically certain, though it by no means 

 follows that a successful shot will crown the proceedings. They 

 are extremely wary, even when under the influence of love, and, 

 more often than not, apparent!}' spot the would-be murderer before 

 he has time to fire. 



From a sporting point of view, these grand birds seem to be a 

 failure. In the first place they are nowhere numerous enough to 

 make the pursuit of them alone worth while, and in the second, 

 they are such confirmed skulkers, that it is most difficult to get 

 them to fly. It is true that Hume, Beavan and others have re- 

 corded them as easy to put up with dogs, but modern birds 

 seem to be more sophisticated than those of the days when these 

 sportsmen wrote. True, if a dog can come on one suddenly in 

 comparatively light jungle, he will take to wing or get up some 

 tree, but as a rule he or she trusts to its legs to take it into safety. 

 Mr. Whymper writes me : 



" From a sporting point of view, both species of Tragopan 

 are very disappointing; even dogs, accustomed to Hill Phea- 

 sants often fail to make them show themselves, though, as 

 the only places I ever saw them in were dense ringal jungles, 

 generally on very steep and broken hillsides, this is not per- 

 haps to be wondered at. However, one never-to-be-forgotten 



