190 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV 



They are shy birds, but yet neither so shy nor so wary as Jungle- 

 Fowl, and when the two are together it is almost invariably the 

 Jungle-Fowl who first takes alarm and sneak off into safetj^. Their 

 manner too of leaving is very different. A cock Jungle-Fowl dis- 

 turbed takes but a second to make up his mind, a rapid glance in 

 the direction of the intruder, and down go head and tail, and with 

 hasty but stealth}^ steps he is off out of sight. The Pheasant is not 

 nearly so prompt in his actions, and if one disturbs a part)'- of these 

 birds and keeps absolutely still, quite an amusing little comedy 

 may be seen before they make up their minds that discretion is the 

 better part of valoiu". When standing in the deep sliade of a tree 

 I have seen from a distance of some 40 or 50 yards a party of 

 Kalij Pheasants take minutes to decide if I was dangerous or not. 

 An unlucky twig stepped on as I crept along just inside the jungle 

 had attracted their attention, but the light was bad, and the food 

 on which they were engaged, — termites — plentiful and engrossing. 

 At the snap of the twig every bird stopped and looked at me, 

 for the first instant motionless, and then, screwing and twisting 

 their necks about in an endeavour to get a better view. After a 

 few seconds a fat white ant tumbling down in front of one bird 

 was more than she could resist, and a hasty snatch and gulp put it 

 safely away. No harm coming to ner from this, she was very 

 shortly busily re-engaged in chasing and gobbling up the termite^t- 

 as they crept from their holes or fell down again after their flight. 

 Her example was enough for the others, and within five minutes 

 they were all happily engaged as unsuspecting as if no danger was 

 anywhere near them. 



It was so amusing to watch them, that I cautiously stepped back 

 into still darker shadow without frightening them. A patch of 

 ground on which hill-rice had been grown and cut had left as stubble 

 some 4 to 6 inches high, and amongst this the Pheasants, 8 in num- 

 ber, scurried to and fro, darting at ant after ant, often fluttering up 

 a few feet in the air as if in ungainly amulation of the kingcrows, 

 jays, and other birds which constantly swept backwards and for- 

 wards in graceful pursuit of those insects which had winged their 

 way higher np. 



Ten minutes of this, however, satisfied my curiosit}', and as 1 

 was in camp, and had to shoot for the pot, I then stepped out, 

 bowled over the cock as he ran belter skelter for the bushes, and 

 his wife, as she winged her way over his fallen body. 



The Kalij nowhere collects in such numbers as to afford a da}'s 

 sport like the Jungle- Fowl does yet there are many places where 

 with a few beaters one may get quite enough shots to make a ver\" 

 interesting morning or evening's walk, and probably with dogs — 

 personally I have never shot with trained ones — the result might 

 be even better. 



