THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 193 



Kjilij Pheasant are not nearly siicli noisy birds as are Jungle- 

 Fowl, but call — one can hardly call it crowing — pretty regularly 

 during the breeding season. This call or crow seems to be uttered 

 only during the mornings and evenings, and never in the middle ol 

 the day, as is that of the Jungle Cock. A Cock Kalij only calls on 

 his roosting perch before he gets down from it in the morning, and 

 after he has returned to it in the evenino- before settline; down for 

 the night. Nor does he use his crow as a challenge to other cocks ; 

 when he wants a fight, or pretends that he wants a fight, he 

 proclaims the fact by loud flappings of his wings, and by quickly 

 repeated beatings together of the tail above his back, and also by 

 beating them on his ribs. In the former case the sound made is 

 very loud and sharp, only lasting a second or two, but when a 

 male bird drums against his side the noise is much lower and softer, 

 and is continued for some seconds or even minutes. 



At the same time the Kalij is not in the same class as the Jungle 

 Fowl as a fighter in any way, far slower and less decisive in his 

 movements, he has not the same real delight in a scrap as has that 

 bird. I have often heard Kalij Cocks defying one another to 

 mortal combat when seated at a few yards apart, but the finale has 

 nearly always been disappointing. If one bird really makes up 

 his mind to fight, the other has as a rale alreadj^ made up his mind 

 that he does not want to. Sometimes they will actually meet, and 

 after much mutual abuse and wary walking round, both birds 

 simultaneously decide that there is really nothing to fight about, 

 and retire to their own domains, or commence feeding. 



Now and then in the height of the breeding season the fights 

 develop in to really fierce battles, and are continued until one or the 

 other of the combatants owns himself beaten and sneaks away, often 

 in a very tattered and featherless condition about head and neck. 



I have alread}^ described a fight which I witnessed between a 

 cock Jungle-Fowl and a Kalij Pheasant, but in this case the former 

 was the aggressor and the latter would have retired after a very few 

 rounds had he been able to escape. 



A similar fight, though on this occasion the casus belli was in 

 possession of an ant-hill from which termites were issuing, was 

 witnessed by ]\[r. R. A. Clark in Cacliar. In this instance also the 

 fight ended in the running of the Kalij. After a description of 

 this fight, Mr. Clark writes : — 



" On another occasion I came across a pair of male Kalij 

 " fighting amongst a lot of fern ; they were so taken up with 

 "their own affairs tliat they did not notice my having 

 " approached to within fifteen yards ; I let them go on for ten 

 " minutes, and then went up and caught both ; the}'' were 

 '•' quite exhausted, the feathers from the head and neck had all 

 " been knocked off, and the latter were bleeding in both birds." 



